Longing To Belong
by Madaboutagirl
Summary: Alternative version of The Sound of Silence with MerZona. Thanks to Shondaland for creating the characters. (Title is Longing to Belong by Eddie Vedder)
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Memories and flashbacks are shown in italics, hope it's not too confusing.**_

* * *

Arizona checks her phone after rounds and sees a message from Meredith that she's stuck in traffic, so she texts her back to see if she's made it in yet.

Meredith responds "Trauma 3" so Arizona continues to chart. Then she hears running outside her office, so she steps out in the hall to see what's going on.

"There's a code Grey in the ER, Dr Robbins," the charge nurse informs her. "I believe Dr Karev already responded."

"Can you find out if I'm needed? Otherwise, I'll stay here and cover the unit," she replies.

"Yes, Dr Robbins. I'll note that in the system," the nurse replies.

Finishing the charting from her morning rounds, Arizona heads out to the floor, "Has Dr Karev returned to the unit?" she asks one of the nurses at the desk.

"No Dr Robbins, we just got a note from staffing that he is out for the rest of the day," she replies hesitantly, then adds "Dr Robbins, the Code Grey was Dr Grey, she was attacked in Trauma Room 3, she's in serious but stable condition."

Shocked, all Arizona can do is nod that she heard the nurse, then she spins around and darts back into her office, closing the door behind her quickly and leaning against it a moment. She can't breathe, afraid that she's going to hyperventilate, she moves over to her desk and drops into her chair, bending over her knees she takes a few deep breaths. Feeling a bit more composed, she grabs her computer and finds Meredith's chart in the system. Oh my god, how could this happen inside the hospital, she asks herself before grabbing the phone and calling Alex.

"Hello?" his voice is broken and stressed. but he answers on the first ring.

"I just heard. Where are you?" she asks.

"I'm in the surgical lounge waiting for her to get out of surgery, Arizona it's bad. Really bad," he says. Instantly she's alarmed all over again, because she's never heard Alex this broken before.

"Alex, I'm on my way, okay?" She says shutting her office and rushing to the elevator, flashing the charge nurse her pager as she goes by the desk so they know she's heading off the unit.

Entering the lounge a few minutes later, she's stunned to see Alex's tear-stained face. "Have you heard anything yet?" Arizona asks.

He shakes his head no.

"I'll be right back." Arizona says squeezing his shoulder before slipping out. She pauses in front of the surgical board and spots the hastily written surgery with Hunt, Webber, and Pierce written in as the surgeons.

Standing in the gallery looking down she can tell that they have her stabilized medically, but she can tell that there's still a lot of concern regarding her injuries. Arizona can't take seeing Meredith on the table so she steps out into the hall. Bending over taking deep breaths until she is composed enough to go back in and update Alex.

* * *

"They'll be out soon. She's stable," she informs him. Then sitting down beside him, she turns and asks angrily, "What the hell happened in that Trauma room? Why was she alone?"

"I don't know, she came in with him on the ambulance and he had a head wound, they were waiting for a neuro consult, when he had a seizure, the nurses stepped out to get fresh linens to clean him up. They think that he got up after that and attacked her," Alex explains. "I don't know what I should do, should I call the nanny, should I have her bring the kids here?" He asks Arizona.

"Not yet, let's hold off and wait until Pierce is out of surgery. I think the two of you should decide that together. You're still her emergency contact right?" Arizona asks.

"Yeah, I mean they had me sign the surgery forms, so I don't think she changed them," he replies.

"Okay, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going back up to cover peds and you're going to wait for her to get out of surgery and keep me posted," Arizona says calmly, hiding the panic that she feels.

"You guys are really close friends now, how are you so calm?" He asks.

"Well, It helps that you're not," she replies, reaching out to squeeze his hand. "Alex, she's going to be okay. She has to be, those three kids are not losing their mom" Arizona replies, bending down to kiss his cheek.

* * *

Back in her office, Arizona sinks on to her couch and breaks down, still unable to believe that Meredith was attacked here in their hospital. After a few minutes she wills herself to regain her composure, before heading out to visit with the Peds staff to let them know that Alex will be in and out for the next few days and they should page her with any and all emergencies. Then she heads down to Callie's office.

"Hey, how's she doing?" Arizona asks when the brunette looks up at her.

"Oh my god, Arizona her jaw is wired shut, she's lost her hearing, I fixed her dislocated elbow, but her knee and ankle may need surgery. I just can't believe this happened here," Callie says tears flowing freely.

"I know, I know. Thank god she's alive though and she'll recover her hearing, right?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, Jackson thinks she will, but my god, have you seen her yet?" Callie asks.

"Not really, I looked into the OR to check on her, but I couldn't really see anything." Arizona admits. "But I just wanted to let you know that I am going to be covering Peds for the next day or so for Alex, so I wanted to make sure that you were okay with keeping Sofia." Arizona replies.

"Yes, of course, it's my week. Wait, you are just going to stay here then?" Callie asks.

"With Meredith and Alex both out, we're down two surgeons, so I am going to let Bailey know that I am available to help cover general and peds this week," Arizona explains.

"Uh, wow, I hadn't even thought of that yet," Callie says softly to herself. "Uh, Arizona, please let me know if there's anything you need, okay?"

"I will," Arizona replies before turning to leave.

* * *

"Hey, I was just coming to look for you, Karev is…" Bailey begins talking as soon as Arizona approaches her.

"I've already removed Alex from the call sheet and instructed the Peds staff to page me for anything and everything," Arizona says cutting her off. "Now, can I help cover General too?"

"Uh, well I just posted a temporary position on the PRN board Statewide," Bailey replies.

"Callie's got Sofia this week, so I'll just stay as much as you need me for the next 48 hours," Arizona offers.

"Well thank you Arizona, that will be a big help, I'll let you know as soon as we get this covered," Bailey promises.

* * *

A few hours later, Arizona stops by the ICU to check on Meredith. She spots Alex outside in the hall so she approaches him, "Is she awake at all?" she asks.

"She's just in and out," he replies. "Go in and see her, I'll stay out here. I can barely look at her right now without wanting to go kill that guy," Alex confesses

Arizona ducks into the room and gasps at the sight of Meredith's bruised and bandaged face. She starts to talk to her, then remembers that she can't hear, so she leans over and kisses her lightly on the forehead and rests her hand along her face in a gentle caress.

Meredith's eyes flutter open at the contact and she panics, the monitors start beeping. Arizona pulls back to let Meredith's eyes focus so she can see her face, a flicker of recognition crosses the bruised face and bloodshot eyes, but then the eyes close again. Gasping in fear, the blonde turns away from the bed to give herself a moment to recompose before she leaves the room.

"I'm covering general and peds for the next 48 hours," Arizona informs Alex as she approaches him in the hall, "please let me know when she's more alert. Otherwise, I'll come back in a few hours to check on you both, okay?"

"Arizona, she'll be okay," he says putting an arm around her. "She's survived too much for this... " his voice cracks, "she'll be okay," he repeats firmly.

"I know, just don't let her wake up alone, okay?" Arizona says, "promise me that you'll stay here and if you need to leave page me and I'll stay with her."

"Okay, I'm not going anywhere. I already called Yang, but she's in the middle of a medical trial so I had to talk to Ross. Pierce has temporary custody of the kids in event of an emergency, so we're working out a schedule with the nanny," he informs her, "she just went home to stay with them tonight."

"I think that's good, they're used to Maggie being there and that will help them adjust. You guys need to let them know what happened, but they can't see her like this, it will really scare them," she reminds him.

"They're used to you too, so don't be a stranger, Arizona," he reminds her.

"I couldn't stay away from them if I tried. Please let me know if they need anything," she replies softly, giving him a light hug before leaving.

* * *

Back in her office, she locks the door and slumps to the floor breaking down again. Pulling her phone out she tries to read the messages they exchanged last night but it's too hard. Memories of the past six months flood her mind.

 _"Arizona?" Meredith says answering the door with the baby on her hip._

 _"Callie has Sofia, so I wanted to check in and see if I can help you with anything," Arizona offers stepping inside the house._

 _"I'm sorry it's such a mess. I can't seem to get anything unpacked," she says embarrassed by all the boxes surrounding them._

 _"Well, let's pick a room and get started," Arizona replies smiling brightly._

 _Arizona spent every night that first week helping Meredith get settled in the house and by the weekend, Arizona insisted that Jo and Alex come over and babysit so she and Meredith could go out to lunch._

Smiling at the memory of that time spent really getting to know each other after working together for so many years. They both were surprised at how much they had in common. It soon became obvious to Arizona that she was developing a crush on Meredith, which was about the time she came back to work.

 _"When does it get easier?" Meredith asks bursting into Arizona's office one day._

 _One look at her friend and immediately the blonde realizes that she's talking about losing Derek._

 _"It doesn't get easier, not really," Arizona says softly. "You kind of get numb, so it hurts less," she explains._

 _"There's no where in this hospital that doesn't remind me of him," Meredith admits tearfully._

 _"I know," Arizona replies taking her into her arms and comforting her._

The sound of her pager buzzing, shakes Arizona from the memories. Checking the pager, she get up and steps into her bathroom to splash cold water on her face to try to reduce the puffiness from crying before responding to the page.

"Chelsea, would you alert the ER that I am on my way," Arizona calls out as she passes the nurses station.

* * *

Finishing up the emergency appendectomy on a teenager, Arizona finds herself passing by the ICU on her way to recovery.

"How is she?" Arizona asks the nurse at the desk.

"Dr Hunt is keeping her sedated tonight," the nurse replies.

Entering the room, Arizona gently shakes Alex's shoulder, "Hey, you should go sleep in an on call room, Hunt's keeping her sedated tonight," she reminds him.

"I can't leave her alone," he replies. "I wasn't there when it happened, so I have to be here now."

"Okay," Arizona replies watching him close his eyes again, before walking over to the bed and leaning in close to Meredith's face, "I'm here and I'm not leaving this hospital until you're awake. You're not alone, you've got Alex and you've got me," she whispers softly, believing that even sedated, Meredith can feel the vibration of her words and the touch of her lips on her face.

 _Another memory flashes through Arizona's mind. Taking her back to an early afternoon, unpacking and organizing Meredith's kitchen. Meredith went upstairs to change Ellis and after an hour, Arizona went up to check on them and Meredith had fallen asleep in the rocking chair in her bedroom while Ellis was awake and babbling away. Gently Arizona took the baby and laid her down in the crib, then she bent close to Meredith's ear and woke her up enough to help her out of the chair and onto the bed. When Meredith woke up later in her bed, she marveled that the blonde was able to do that without waking her up. Arizona laughed and joked that it was one of her superpowers._

Giving the nurse the order to move the boy out of recovery and into a room, Arizona stops in the waiting room to let the parents know that their child will be moved up to Peds soon and suggests that they go get some sleep and come back in the morning.

In her office, she locks the door and then heads into the suite and lays down on the bed to get some rest herself.

 _"Hey, you fell asleep," Meredith teases._

 _"Is the movie over?" Arizona asks confused as to why they are on the couch with the tv off._

 _"You fell asleep, I'm not watching it alone," Meredith replies._

 _'"I'm sorry. I should just go home. I'm too tired to watch a movie tonight," Arizona says sitting up on the couch._

 _"You're too tired to drive home, so stay here," Meredith says placing a hand on her leg._

 _Panicking a little at the touch, Arizona's eyes open wide. "No, I'm good to drive," she says nervously._

 _"Arizona, the movie hadn't even started before you were sound asleep. You're not driving, just come upstairs and sleep with me, it's a big bed, you won't even know I'm there," Meredith jokes._

 _Once the lights were off and they were in the bed on their separate sides, Arizona admits to her, "Uh, Meredith I'm not used to sleeping with another woman like this, so you know I think I should apologize upfront in case I uh, get too close," she mumbles nervously._

 _Meredith laughs, "Arizona, it's okay, we're friends. I don't mind a little spooning between friends, ask anyone, they've all been spooned by me, it's part of being my friend you know."_

 _Waking up the next morning with Meredith wrapped around her, Arizona has to admit it was the best night's sleep that she'd had in months. And when Zola and Bailey came in the next morning they weren't phased by finding them in the same bed._

Waking up alone at the hospital, Arizona can't go back to sleep so she dresses quickly and heads to the ICU to check on Meredith. Alex is coming out of her room when Arizona arrives.

"Alex, what's happening?" she asks worried.

"Uh, nothing. They just delayed the next dose of sedative so they could do a neurocheck," he replies, as Edwards exits the room.

"Wait, Edwards? Where's Shepherd? Why isn't she here?" Arizona asks confused to see the resident taking care of Meredith and not the head of Neurology.

"I told Dr Shepherd that I would follow Dr Grey's case, Dr Robbins. Dr Grey is important to me, don't worry, I've got this," Edwards says confidently before walking away.

"Well, she's confident at least," Arizona remarks. "But where is Amelia?"

"I don't know, the last time that I saw her she was sitting on the floor of the trauma room in shock crying," Alex replies angrily. "Hey, you should get in there before they sedate her again," he adds.

Arizona enters the room and goes over to Meredith and lays her hand on her arm and softly rubs the skin, her eyes flutter open and Arizona looks for some sign of recognition from her. Tears pool in Meredith's eyes and spill down her face causing the same effect on Arizona. The blonde leans in and says "You will be okay," then kisses her forehead.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: enjoy this chapter, it may be Thursday before I can post the next one (sad face)**_

* * *

Later that morning, Arizona is scrubbing in with DeLuca and Blake on one of Meredith's surgeries. Blake, nervous about operating with her girlfriend's ex-wife, finishes scrubbing and heads into the OR, leaving DeLuca and Robbins alone.

"Dr Robbins, I'm really sorry about what happened to Dr Grey, if you ever want to talk, I'm here," he says softly.

"DeLuca, Dr Grey and I are close friends, I'm not sure what you're implying," Arizona says trying to hide her alarm.

"Look, I'm an observant person and I've seen the way you two look at each other, I'm not going to say anything to anyone, not even Dr Pierce, but I wanted you to know that I know this is hard for you," he says looking at her compassionately.

Stunned, Arizona nods to him, not trusting her voice and thankful for the mask so he can't see her lip trembling.

"Uh, I'll meet you in there," he says leaving her alone.

Entering the OR a few minutes later, Arizona nods to the tech to turn on the music and soon pop music is flooding the room, the perfect distraction the blonde needed to get back into surgical mode.

The procedure was relatively simple, bowel resection, so Arizona let's Blake take over and she steps back to observe. Then watches as Blake begins talking through her steps teaching the intern. No longer nervous about being in the OR with Robbins, Blake asks if she should go ahead and close and Robbins nods and steps away from the table to talk to a tech who just entered.

"Blake, you've got this right?" Arizona asks the resident.

"Yes Dr Robbins, almost done," she says confidently.

"They are prepping OR 3 for a trauma, DeLuca you're with me. Blake stay with her and follow her to recovery, when she's stable come find us," Arizona explains rapidly. "Oh and Blake, if there are any complications, you page Webber, okay?"

"Yes Dr Robbins," Penny replies.

* * *

"Did you just get out of surgery with Arizona?" Callie asks when Penny walks up to the ICU desk.

"Yes, our patient is in recovery so I thought I'd check on Dr Grey, how is she?" Penny asks.

"As good as we can expect right now, she's in a lot of pain, Hunt gave her a morphine pump, which she's using a lot," Callie explains.

"Okay, I just wanted to check. Robbins got pulled into another surgery and I thought that she'd want an update, I'll see you later," Penny says turning to leave.

"Oh, so now you're on Arizona's service?" Callie asks confused.

"She's covering for Grey so yeah, is that a problem?" Penny asks.

"I don't know, you tell me?" Callie replies sarcastically.

"Robbins is great. I just taught an intern to do a bowel resection, it's definitely not a problem for me, but you don't look too happy about it," Penny remarks. "I've got to go prep for our next surgery, Meredith's schedule was full today, so I'll probably just stay here tonight."

"Whatever," Callie says frustrated. Great, now Penny's more excited to see Arizona than she is to see me, she thinks.

* * *

"Dr Robbins, I have our hernia patient prepped and ready in OR 2," Penny says stepping into the OR to let Arizona know.

"Thank you Dr Blake. I'll just be a moment." Arizona says over her shoulder. Then turning back to Ben, she asks, "Dr Warren you can go ahead and close this one, excellent work," she says stepping back from the table. "DeLuca, let's go."

Scrubbing again for the next surgery, Arizona quizzes the intern on the procedure. Mainly to distract him from asking anymore personal questions, but also to remind herself of the procedure, it's been over a year since she's done this surgery.

"Dr Robbins, may I have a word?" Webber asks, stepping into the scrub room.

"Of course, Dr Webber," Arizona replies, "Dr DeLuca was about to go into the OR to assist Dr Blake. DeLuca, tell Blake that I'll be right there, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replies heading into the OR.

"How's it going? Meredith had a full schedule today, do you need me to take anything off your plate?" he asks.

"I'm good. I'm going to let Blake and DeLuca handle this one, so I can review the chart on the next one," she explains. "But Warren and Blake are proving to be well prepared for their procedures today."

"Robbins, do you realize that you have three procedures scheduled at 3pm?" Webber asks. "Now how exactly do you plan to be in three ORs at the same time?"

"Uh, well I'm not sure I even know what they are right now, sir," the blonde admits.

"This is too much, I'll take one and I'll see if Kepner can take the other one," he replies. "Check the board when you're done and I'll have it sorted out for you."

"Thanks Richard," Arizona says before heading into the OR.

* * *

Blake was floored when Arizona entered the OR and told her that she was to teach DeLuca the procedure and let him cut, "Uh, Dr Robbins, Dr Grey doesn't let interns cut this early," she replies.

"Dr Blake, I'm not Dr Grey and I believe that Dr DeLuca is prepared for this, so you talk him through it. And I'll be here if you need me," she replies sitting down on a stool with a medical journal.

* * *

Grabbing a smoothie in the cafeteria between procedures, Arizona is stopped by Callie.

"Hey, how is it going?" Callie asks. "You've been in and out of the OR all day."

"It's fine. I've got three more hours then I'm done, unless there's a trauma that comes in," Arizona replies. "Uh how's Meredith?"

"Blake didn't tell you?" Callie asks.

"Oh right, Blake said that Hunt put her on a morphine pump and she's in a lot of pain, but how is she Callie?" Arizona questions.

"I'm not sure, she can't talk or hear us, so she doesn't respond. She seems frustrated or angry, I mean that would be a normal response, right?" Callie replies.

"I think scared as hell, would be the normal response," Arizona counters. "Is she trying to communicate at all yet?"

"Not really, just the opposite. I was in there earlier checking on her and all she did was stare at me and push the morphine button to go back to sleep," Callie admits. "So don't expect much if you go in there," she adds.

Looking at her phone, Arizona decides to go see for herself, so she tells Callie goodbye and makes her way to the ICU.

"Hey, how are you holding up?" Alex asks when he sees the blonde at the doorway.

''I'm busy at least, how are you?" she asks him.

"I'm going crazy, I don't know if I can just sit here another hour," he replies. "What's your next procedure?" he asks.

"Appy on a ten year old with Warren, you want it?" she asks.

"Uh, yeah. I'll take it," he says eagerly. "Uh so you'll stay here with her?" he asks.

"Yes, but let me go get my files, I still have two surgeries this afternoon that I need to prepare for," she remarks. "Don't go yet, I will be right back."

* * *

Sitting in the chair prepping for the procedure, Arizona suddenly realizes that Meredith is awake and staring at her, so she smiles at her and then notices Meredith tapping her finger. Setting her stuff in the chair, Arizona goes to her and takes her hand and gently rubs her arm. Meredith's eyes flutter at the touch and when she opens them again, a tear falls down her cheek. Without thinking Arizona leans in and places her cheek next to Meredith's and kisses the tear away.

Behind her she hears someone clear their throat.

"You know that she can't hear you, right?" Hunt says as he enters the room.

"I know, but she can feel the vibration, so she knows that I'm talking to her," Arizona replies carefully.

"Well, she's staying awake for you, that's good. Torres paged me all freaked out earlier," he says moving around the bed quickly examining her. "I'm surprised to see you here, I thought you had back to back surgeries all day," he remarks.

"I'm preparing for my next two cases, Karev was going stir crazy, so he took the appy," Arizona explains, watching as Meredith's eyes close again.

"Torres says that you've had Blake teaching DeLuca, are you sure that's a good idea?" He asks.

"She's a third year Owen, she needs the experience and honestly, she's probably more prepared for these cases than I am, so yeah, it's a good idea and it's working well," Arizona remarks, going back over to sit in the chair.

"Just keep an eye on her and don't give her too much rope," he cautions. "But I guess you already know that, since you and Meredith are close now," he stammers.

Arizona looks up at him and considers his words, not sure how to respond.

Noticing her reaction, he quickly adds, "She, uh, told me about you and her. Since Cristina's gone, sometimes she talks to me and this was one of those times. I think it's great by the way," he adds nervously.

"I'm not sure people are ready to see her move on with anyone yet, especially with me," Arizona points out.

"I think that you'll be surprised, Robbins, people really like you. I think, especially right now, you might be the most popular surgeon in the building. The interns and residents are all asking to be on your service," he counters.

"Of course they are Owen, the board is full and my name is on every other procedure!" she replies.

"And you're letting them cut," he reminds her.

"She's going to kill me when she comes back and all of her residents have soloed without her," Arizona remarks.

"She's got a long road ahead of her, I don't think she'll be thinking about her residents for a while," he counters.

* * *

Finally done for the day, Arizona lays down on the bed in her suite so she can take off her prosthetic and relax.

 _"Can I kiss you?" Meredith asks softly as they lay in bed one night._

 _"Meredith," Arizona says moving away from her slightly. "I don't think that's a good idea."_

 _"Arizona, don't pretend like you don't want to kiss me. I see it in your eyes, this is happening, we should go with it," Meredith says moving closer to her and placing her fingers under the blonde's chin to hold her in place before leaning in and kissing her. Momentarily frozen in place, Arizona can hardly breathe as Meredith's lips touch hers softly, then more eagerly, until finally her tongue is exploring and pushing her way in and the blonde can't take it, she begins returning the kiss hungrily._

The dream was so real, that waking up alone, Arizona raises up on her elbow and looks around the room tearing up immediately as the reality of Meredith in the ICU crashes into her brain again. Looking at her phone to check the time, she's surprised to see that it's almost 3 am. And since she slept almost 8 hours uninterrupted, she suspects that Webber or Hunt took her off the on call list tonight, which in retrospect was probably the right thing to do. Grabbing her crutches she makes her way in to the bathroom and turns on the shower.

* * *

Entering Meredith's room quietly so she doesn't wake Alex, Arizona leans in close to greet her with a soft kiss to her brow. Meredith's eyes flutter open at the contact and she tries to smile at the blonde, but it's more of a grimace.

"Your jaw is wired shut," Arizona says softly and slowly, wondering if Meredith can see to read lips yet. Meredith's response is to close her eyes again, but her fingers drum lightly on the bed, so Arizona takes her hand and rubs her skin softly. Her eyes flutter open again, acknowledging the contact, before she falls back to sleep.

In the chair Alex groans, then asks, "What time is it?"

"Almost five, I'm going to get some coffee, do you need anything?" she asks.

"No," he mumbles and falls back to sleep.

* * *

It's too early for the coffee cart, so Arizona heads to the doctor's lounge to make coffee. As she's setting up the coffee pot, she realizes that someone is asleep on the couch. She goes over and realizes that it's Amelia.

As soon as the coffee is ready, she pours two cups and sets one down on the table and then shakes the brunette awake.

"Amelia get up, you can't let anyone see you like this," Arizona says sharply. "Wake up, Shepherd!"

"What?" Amelia asks confused, her eyes glassy and unfocused.

"Wake up, drink this coffee and go shower," Arizona says unsympathetically.

"Why are you here?" Amelia asks still confused.

"You're in the attendings lounge and it's almost 5 o'clock in the morning. You're lucky that it's me that found you and not Bailey," Arizona points out, handing her the cup of coffee.

"Shit, I need to get out of here," she says suddenly aware of her situation. "And it's my day off," Amelia points out.

"You can't be in the hospital like this, too many people know your history. Amelia, please get help, you're an amazing surgeon, please don't screw everything up now," Arizona cautions her.

"I'm not going to let it get to that point, this was just an accident. I'll get back on track," she says mostly to herself as she takes the coffee and leaves the room.

Before Arizona can finish her coffee her pager goes off. 911 to the pit.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: yay! Love the feedback, ya'll are awesome. Should get a chapter a day for the next few days!**_

* * *

"Robbins, school bus accident; you're on point," Kepner says when Arizona enters the ER.

"How many injured?" Arizona asks.

"We're getting six trauma patients, the rest went to Seattle Pres," Kepner replies.

"Dr Blake and Dr DeLuca you're with me," Arizona says rushing outside to meet the first ambulance.

"Dr Avery, I've got serious facial lacerations here," Arizona calls out and Jackson and April take the patient inside.

"Dr Hunt, internal injuries, possible crushed pelvis, page Ortho STAT!" she says, " Blake, go with Hunt, he's going to need assistance."

The next patient has a head trauma and Arizona looks around but thankfully doesn't see Shepherd, "Dr Webber can you take this next one and get Edwards to help you?" Arizona says directly to him.

"We should page Shepherd," he replies.

"She's off today" Arizona replies. "DeLuca, please page Edwards for Webber," she says waiting for the intern to leave.

"Shepherd is still on call, Dr Robbins. Why aren't you calling her in?" Webber asks pulling the blonde aside.

"Richard, she was passed out in the attendings lounge at 5 am, I told her to go home and I removed her from the on call list. I don't think she will try to work in that condition, but if she shows up then we'll have no choice but to report it," Arizona explains.

"Okay, I'll follow up on that," he replies, taking the patient and heading inside.

Kepner comes back out and helps unload the next ambulance and takes the patient inside.

The next ambulance arrives and it's the driver, Maggie and DeLuca take the patient inside just as the last ambulance arrives.

"What do we have?" Arizona asks when they open the doors.

"Unconscious approximately ten year old male, abdominal injuries, possible ruptured spleen, crushed between two seats," the EMT explains.

Pushing the gurney into the ER, Arizona looks up at the nurse who directs her to Trauma 4. Bailey follows her into the trauma room to assist.

* * *

Callie finishes stabilizing Hunt's patient and then rushes into the next OR, major traumas almost always make for a busy day in ortho, she loves it, but today she's distracted, because Arizona is running general surgery and the brunette isn't used to seeing her ex-wife so much in one day.

"Where's ortho?" Arizona calls out as she and Bailey are working to stabilize the child's internal injuries, but his crushed femur has a tourniquet that needs removed or he'll lose his leg.

"I'm here, I'm here," Callie replies entering the OR, then taking one look at the leg, she looks up at the blonde and asks, "Films?"

"Yes, multiple views are hanging up for you Dr Torres," Arizona replies barely looking up. I am just about finished repairing this internal bleed, can I assist with that femur."

Bailey is paged and Arizona tells her to go. Callie looks up at Arizona, her eyes smiling over the mask, "it's been a while," she remarks, "I forgot how good you are at running traumas."

"Thanks" Arizona replies before returning to the patient and getting a clamp ready, as Callie prepares to release the tourniquet.

* * *

"I'll meet you in Recovery, I've got four follow ups," Callie says after they finish the procedure and head to the scrub room.

"This just set my day back by 4 hours," Arizona replies, rolling her neck back and forth to loosen the tight muscles.

"Hopefully you can go home tonight and sleep in your own bed," Callie reminds her.

"Robbins, the relief surgeon is here. If Hunt and I take the residents, will you work with her and get her up to speed?" Bailey asks stepping back into the scrub room.

"Yes, who is it?" Arizona asks.

"Dr Samantha Stewart from Portland, she's in HR now getting set up. She'll meet you in OR 2 in an hour," Bailey replies.

"Didn't you date a surgeon from Portland?" Callie asks, then noticing the look on Arizona's face, she bites her lip to keep from smiling.

"Yes I did, can you guess what her name was?" Arizona asks sarcastically.

"Wow, this should be interesting," Callie remarks. "So maybe she's single and she can help you with that kink in your neck."

* * *

"Hey, you're awake," Arizona says entering Meredith's room.

Meredith just stares and watches her walk over to the bed.

Arizona reaches a hand out and cups the bruised face gently, "I miss you," she says slowly.

Meredith blinks away tears and picks up the morphine button.

"Wait," Arizona says covering her hand and making her look up for a minute.

Tears spill down Meredith's face as she closes her eyes and presses the button to make everything go away.

"She's done that to everyone, but you're the first person to slow her down," Penny remarks from the doorway.

"She's in a lot of pain, it's understandable," Arizona replies still looking at the wall as she tries to compose herself before turning around to face the resident. Then deciding to take another approach, Arizona turns around and says, "Meredith and I were in a plane crash together, did you know that?"

"Yes, I've heard that story. It was remarkable, that you were able to survive for four days with those injuries," Penny replies carefully.

"You think after surviving something like that, that just maybe bad things won't happen to you any more, but they do. Meredith is proof of that," Arizona remarks sadly, tears falling again. "It's terrifying really," she adds before walking out of the room.

* * *

Leaving the ICU, Arizona ducks into the first on call room, she finds and shuts the door before sitting down on the bed to cry.

 _"Look at everything that I've survived, I had my hand on a bomb in a patient's chest, I almost drowned in the bay, I begged a gunman to shoot me to save Derek, Alex and I were in an ambulance that broke down and was hit by another vehicle, we were in a plane crash. I've lost George, Lexie and Derek. Arizona, what else can possibly happen?" Meredith asked one night out of frustration._

 _"Please don't put that out into the Universe," Arizona replied, wrapping her arms around her._

 _"The residents think we're immortal, did you know that?" Meredith asked._

 _"Yes, Edwards told me several months ago," Arizona admitted._

 _"You've survived almost as much as I have, maybe we're meant to be immortal together?" Meredith teased._

 _"There's no one that I'd rather be immortal with," Arizona replied as she kissed her._

The pager going off, brings the blonde back to reality. Checking it, she sees that Dr Stewart is looking for her already. "Great, this is just fucking great," she murmurs to herself as she leaves the on call room.

* * *

Tall, thin and athletic, Samantha Stewart is sitting leaning against the surgical desk flirting with Jo Wilson when Arizona approaches. "Maybe I'll see you around later," she says ending her conversation with Wilson.

"Thanks for paging me Dr Wilson," Arizona says as she approaches.

"Arizona, you look beautiful as ever," Sam replies leaning in to hug her.

"Sam what are you doing here? Did you finally move to Seattle?" Arizona asks.

"Apparently, this is where all the hot doctors are," she teases glancing over at Wilson.

"I should probably get back to the recovery room, Dr Torres is on her way," Wilson stammers, nervous from the attention from the other woman.

"Sam, she's off limits, not to mention straight and seeing someone," Arizona says firmly.

"Okay, okay, she is nice to look at though," she teases.

"Sam, this is my hospital. I mean I am one of the owners and a board member, so please respect that, these literally are my people, my staff, okay?" Arizona explains.

"Yes, of course. And I heard about the plane crash and I am really glad that you're okay," Sam says seriously. "The world is a better place with Arizona Robbins in it."

"I agree with that," Callie says brightly walking up to the two surgeons.

"Dr Torres, meet Dr Stewart, she'll be covering Dr Grey's service for the next few months," Arizona says introducing them.

Callie can't help but look the taller woman over, "Callie Torres, ortho. Well, you are not what I expected," she exclaims.

"Excuse me," Sam says confused as Arizona cringes.

"Callie is my ex, I may have mentioned you before," Arizona says embarrassed and annoyed at the brunette.

"Well, Callie then we should have lunch this week, so I can even the score," Sam says to tease Arizona.

"Hmm, sounds interesting, I'm in." Callie says, then turning to leave she says over her shoulder, "Arizona great job this morning, but try to visit your daughter today, she misses you."

A look of sadness passes quickly across the blonde's face, but she doesn't respond, instead she turns to Sam and says, "Let's get started, I'll give you a brief tour of the surgical suite and then we've got a …" Arizona begins to talk as she walks away.

"Hold up, daughter?" Sam says reaching out to grab her arm. "Arizona Robbins, the ped surgeon who didn't want kids, has a daughter?" Sam asks feigning shock and surprise.

"Yes, she's five and the spitting image of her mother, that mother," Arizona says nodding in the direction that Callie took. "People change, Sam," the blonde adds.

"I know but that was something we had in common and now you have a kid," Sam says following her down the hall.

* * *

"Have you met Dr Stewart?" Wilson asks Edwards and Blake in the locker room.

"No, who's Dr Stewart," Edwards asks.

"She's the surgeon covering Dr Grey's service," Blake replies.

"What's she like?" Edwards asks.

"She's a lesbian McSteamy. But tall, thin and athletic with short blonde hair," Wilson replies and Edwards covers her mouth in shock.

"Are you serious? Oh, this will be interesting, has Torres met her?" Stephanie asks, then turns to Blake. "Uh, that's not what I meant, Penny. McSteamy was Callie's friend Mark and he was…"

Blake interrupts her, "I know about Mark, Sofia's dad, I just didn't know he was called McSteamy."

"Will you be on her service?" Wilson asks Blake to change the subject.

"No, Chief Bailey told me that I would be on Dr Hunt's service this week, then Dr Webber's service the next week," Blake answers.

* * *

"So what's a double board certified pediatric and fetal surgeon doing filling in for a general surgeon?" Sam asks as they are scrubbing out after their first surgery.

"Bailey didn't tell you?" Arizona asks.

"No, I have a three month contract with three option periods, to cover Dr Grey's service. I'm going to assume that she's in your owner group, what with her name being on the hospital and all," Sam points out.

"Meredith was attacked in the ER by a trauma patient with a head injury, it happened on Monday," Arizona replies unemotionally, keeping her eyes on her hands as she scrubs them in the sink.

"Oh my god, but she's going to be alright though?" Sam asks.

"We hope, but she has a long road ahead of her," Arizona replies, her voice wavering a bit.

"I'm sorry to hear that Arizona," Sam says reaching out to nudge the blonde with her elbow. "We should get a drink this weekend and catch up, you know?"

"Uh, I don't really go out much and I have my daughter this weekend, Sam." Arizona replies.

"I like kids, especially other people's kids, just let me know. And look, I was just playing around earlier. I'm seeing someone, but she lives in Portland. If you can you believe my luck, I finally move to Seattle and then meet someone who lives in Portland." Sam jokes.

"The universe is funny that way," Arizona replies sadly. "Thanks Sam, it would be nice to have another friend right now."

* * *

"Where have you been?" Meredith holds up the dry erase board to ask Arizona as she enters the room. It's been several days now since she's seen the blonde and Meredith has been worried that she scared her off.

Smiling brightly, Arizona heads over to the bed and drops the rail before responding. "Oh, this is new?" She remarks as she sits down on the bed. "It's good to see you feeling better, she adds. Then picking up the dry erase board she writes, "I spent my days off with the kids. They love the Aquarium and Bailey is smitten with the whales."

Meredith holds up the board and tries to smile, "Thank you".

"They miss you like crazy, but I told them that you're getting better and they'll be able to visit soon." Arizona says reaching out and squeezing her hand.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Meredith looks away from the blonde.

"Hey," Arizona says reaching up and gently cupping her face to make her look back at her, "I promised you that I would be here for you and I meant it," she says softly. Then just to make sure that Meredith understands she takes the dry erase board and writes it out clearly.

Meredith reads it and looks up, then opens her arms to hug the blonde, burying her face in her neck and kissing her skin lightly.

"Huh, I don't mean to interrupt," Penny says entering the room, but Dr Avery has ordered some tests."

"Okay," Arizona says over her shoulder, "Just give us a minute." Then turning back to Meredith, she says slowly, "Avery ordered tests."

Meredith nods and then reaches up and wipes a tear from the blonde's face. Arizona smiles at her through her own tears and says, "we're a mess," before hugging her again. "I'll see you later," she says standing up to go.

Meredith waves at her and slumps back on the bed and picks up the board to read Arizona's words again.

A few minutes later Penny enters to get her for the tests and she glances at the board and notices Arizona's handwriting, but Meredith places the board face down on the table, before she moves into the wheelchair.

* * *

Laying in the scanner, Meredith distracts herself by thinking of Arizona's smile. Callie mentioned once that Arizona had a smile that could make you feel like you were bulletproof. Last week, Meredith experienced that smile for herself and the memory of it makes her sigh and shift her position on the hard table.

"Uh, Dr Grey, we need you to lie still," Jackson says stepping into the room and placing his hand on her shoulder to remind her.

Meredith nods, then lets her mind go back to the lazy morning the weekend before the attack. Arizona stayed over and despite the blonde's best efforts to resist her, they finally slept together.

 _Early the next morning, Meredith awoke to Arizona watching her sleep._

 _"Good morning," Meredith said softly and Arizona's face broke into the most amazing smile. Meredith pulled the blonde's face down to kiss her and they made love again._

"All done," Jackson says leaning over her.

Meredith jumps when she sees his face instead of Arizona's. Impatiently she waves him away.

Turning to Blake, he says, "Take her back to her room and wait for me."


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: This is firmly MerZona, please don't worry about Samantha or Callie!**_

* * *

Exhausted by the exertion of getting in and out of the wheelchair for each test, Meredith drifts off to sleep as soon as she settles back into bed. Penny returns and decides to fold the blanket that Alex left in the chair and then waters the many bouquets of flowers all over the room. Noticing the clutter on the bedside table, she begins going through and organizing it, then picks up the dry erase board and realizes that it is Arizona's handwriting, she reads it because she does not want to upset Meredith by erasing something important. Setting it down she leaves the room quickly.

* * *

Callie removes the dinner plate from the warmer for Penny, who stopped by after Sofia went to bed.

"I think it's great that Arizona is spending so much time with Dr Stewart," Callie remarks, "she seems happier, doesn't she?"

Penny looks at her and replies, "I don't think that is why she's happy, Dr Stewart is just her friend Callie."

"Penny, I see her and Stewart together all the time. I'm pretty sure that they're dating again," Callie replies.

"Okay," Penny replies, not wanting to discuss it any longer.

Callie looks at her for a moment, "You know something. If she's not with Stewart, then who is she with and how the hell would you know?"

Penny regrets saying anything now, but it's exhausting when Callie thinks she knows everything about everyone at the hospital, "Look, it's really not my place to say anything," Penny replies trying to end the conversation.

"You brought it up, obviously you have something that you want to say," Callie challenges.

Biting her lip, Penny has to admit that while she didn't exactly bring it up, she does want to tell Callie what she saw, but now she realizes that it's probably not a good idea because if Meredith and Arizona wanted her to know they would have told her.

"Callie, you're the one who keeps bringing this up" Penny counters,"And since you obviously want to talk about it, I'll just say it, Arizona visits Meredith a lot and she rarely leaves the hospital when you have Sofia. They seem unusually close and Arizona is really attentive to her," Penny exclaims carefully.

"Penny if you knew Meredith better, you would know that she is intimate with her friends. Hell when Dr Yang was here people used to joke that they were a couple. I'm not surprised that Arizona and Meredith are close now, especially after this," Callie explains, "Not to mention she and I are still barely talking."

"You're probably right. It's just that Meredith pushes everyone away, even Alex sometimes, but I've never seen her push Arizona away," Penny remarks.

"I'm sure she has. I mean, Meredith pushes me away all the time. And you're right Arizona is at the hospital a lot lately, I'm sure that you just missed it," Callie replies.

"Perhaps, but did you know that Arizona spends her days off with Meredith's kids and brings in videos of them playing?" Penny asks.

"Penny, that sounds like something Arizona would do for a friend," Callie replies, beginning to get upset as she realizes what Penny's really implying. "You're not telling anyone these things are you?"

"No, of course not," Penny replies, pissed off that Callie would even ask. "I'm sorry that I even mentioned it. Look, I don't want to fight with you and obviously we're both tired and not in a good place, so I'm just going to leave. Thank you for dinner."

"You are leaving?" Callie asks incredulously.

"I don't get many evenings off Callie and I'm sorry if arguing with you about your ex and your friends is not how I want to spend this one," Penny retorts. "I'll see you tomorrow," she replies putting her coat on and grabbing her keys off the counter.

* * *

Samantha looks over at Arizona and shakes her head. "You're setting yourself up Robbins. Straight women only visit lesbiana, they never stay."

"I know, I know. But she's not exactly straight, she had a relationship with a woman in college," Arizona replies defensively.

"You know as well as I do that sleeping with a woman doesn't make you gay or bi," Samantha counters.

It only took a pizza and a bottle of wine to get Arizona to spill her secret to Samantha. With Meredith in the hospital unable to really communicate, the blonde has been dying to process her feelings with someone. And Sam is perfect because she doesn't know anyone but Arizona.

"So how did this happen, I mean her husband died and you said that she left for almost a year, then came back with a baby?" Sam says trying to understand the situation.

"Yes, then she sold the house that he built them and moved back into the house she had before, which coincided with my fellowship ending. Since I didn't have patients right away and she was off on maternity leave, I just started going over there to help her with the kids and the house. I had just moved into my own place and it was difficult to sit home alone when Sofia was with Callie, so I just went over to help Meredith. At first it was just to keep me busy, but the more time I spent with her, the more time I wanted to spend with her and then I realized what I was feeling for her so I backed off. Now this was about the same time that she came back to work, which was really difficult for her because this hospital is where she and Derek fell in love, so she was reminded of him everywhere. Next thing I know she's coming to me and seeking me out and we're spending even more time together," Arizona explains.

"I get it, grief is a really intimate emotion to share," Sam reminds her.

"I know, which is why I was being really guarded with her. But it's like she took that as a personal challenge. The more guarded I was the more open and vulnerable she became," Arizona replies. "She's a private person, Sam. She doesn't do open and vulnerable, the honest emotion of it was too much, I couldn't stay guarded, even when I wasn't sure if she understood what she was doing to me," Arizona confesses.

"But she did mean it that way, right?" Sam asks.

"Yes, one night she confessed that she had feelings for me and asked why I was hiding mine for her," Arizona says laughing softly at the memory.

"Oh wow, it makes more sense now how you of all people end up chasing a straight girl," Sam replies. "I kind of can't wait to meet her, now."

"Well, she just got her hearing back this week and it'll be another week or so before they remove the wires from her jaw," Arizona explains. "But most of the bruising is gone from her face and she's dying to see her kids, so Alex is going to take them up on Sunday. She hasn't seen them in three weeks."

"Two more weeks before the two of you can have a conversation?" Sam asks.

"That's if she's even talking to me by then," Arizona replies sadly.

* * *

"Mom can't talk?" Zola asks Alex in the car on the way to the hospital.

"No, but she can hear you. So you can talk to her, okay?" He reminds them. "Now remember you have to be careful, your Mom was hurt pretty bad and she's got a broken arm and leg too, so she won't be able to move very much. But guys, she really wants to see you, she misses you like crazy."

"Why can't she come home?" Zola asks.

"She still needs doctors to take care of her," Alex replies.

"But you're a doctor and so is Aunt Maggie, why can't you guys take care of her at home?" the little girl asks.

"Well, we can and we will but not just yet. Really soon, though, I promise, she'll be home in a few weeks," he answers as they pull up to the hospital.

* * *

"Okay, this isn't exactly the right shade, but it is covering the bruising," Arizona tells Meredith as she helps her get ready to see the kids.

Meredith can barely contain herself as she keeps squeezing the blonde's arm excitedly.

"Just don't try to get up, let them come to you and smile, but not too much, because the wires might look a little scary to them," Arizona reminds her.

Meredith nods and smiles at the blonde, thankful that she can hear her voice again and relieved to have her there to help.

Arizona gives her one more look over and then goes over to the door and motions for Alex to bring them in.

Alex stands at the door with Ellis, holding Zola's hand but the kids are frozen in place. Alex tries to talk them into going over to see her, but they're too scared.

Arizona takes the baby from him and carries her over and sets her on Meredith's lap, but she's too freaked out by the older kids reaction that she tries to talk to them, which only freaks them out more and Ellis starts to cry.

Arizona can't take it either, so she takes the baby back over to Alex and tries to calm the kids down, but now Meredith is really upset, so Alex takes the kids away and Arizona shuts the door.

"I'm so sorry, Meredith," Arizona says coming over to comfort her.

"Go away," Meredith says angrily, covering her face with her hands. "Go" she repeats.

Reminding herself of what this feels like, Arizona turns to leave. "I'll leave you alone for now, but I'm not going away," she says tearfully.

* * *

"It couldn't have gone worse," Alex says taking a sip of beer and recounting the whole thing to Maggie.

"Arizona told me about it. Apparently after you guys left, she told her to leave too. I stopped by and she wouldn't even look at me," Maggie explains, "I don't really know what to do," she admits.

"Me either, I don't get it. Zola seemed so ready to see her, then we get in there and she's freezes, won't let go of my hand or anything," Alex replies. "Maybe Arizona had the right idea with the videos," he adds.

"Maybe it was the hospital room that freaked them out?" Maggie suggests. "We could try Facetime."

"Let's wait until she can talk, they'll be fine, once they can hear her voice," he points out.

* * *

"Hey, I just heard about the kids and Meredith, are you okay?" Callie asks when she drops off Sofia at Arizona's house that night.

"It was horrible, the kids just froze Callie. They wouldn't go over to her and she panicked and scared them even more," Arizona explains. "Now, she's shut everyone out and won't let anyone talk to her. I'm really worried about her."

"Well, she just needs time, there is really nothing that you can do or say to make her feel better trust me, I know," Callie replies.

Arizona looks up at her ex and smiles sadly, "Yeah, I guess you do."

"I don't know how you did it Calliope, but thank you for not leaving me. I know I didn't make it easy for you, but it did help that you were there," Arizona admits.

"Well, there's your answer. I mean it's not the same, Meredith isn't your wife or anything like that, but I know you two are close now. Thank you for being her friend, especially after the whole thing with Penny blew up. She's lucky to have you, especially now, I hope that it's not too much for you though." Callie replies, reaching out to squeeze Arizona's arm.

Turning away from her ex to hide her emotions, Arizona picks up Sofia's bag and carries it into the little girl's room as Callie helps her take off her shoes and hang up her coat.

When she comes back out to the living room, Callie can't help but notice that she's upset, "Arizona, do you want to talk or anything? You seem upset," Callie offers.

"Thank you, it's just been an emotional day and I'm a little drained. I really appreciate you bringing Sofia over tonight, I just didn't want to be alone," Arizona confesses as Sofia wraps her arms around the blonde.

"You're not alone now Momma," the little girl replies.

"Have you eaten? Maybe I could cook for you or go get something?" Callie suggests.

"We'll be fine Callie, really. Thank you, but go enjoy your evening, I'm sure Penny would love for you to cook her dinner," Arizona says trying to be gracious.

"She would if we were talking, but we're not right now," Callie says, "But you don't need to hear about that."

"I'm sorry, but we're all kind of on edge lately, just call her and patch things up," Arizona suggests.

"Uh, okay so this is weird," Callie remarks. "Uh, so where's Stewart, isn't she off today?"

Arizona looks at her confused, "She's in Portland right now with her girlfriend. Cal, we're just friends."

"Oh, sorry. I just keep seeing you two together, so I assumed that you were together," Callie admits.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: This is your bonus chapter for suffering through that horrible episode of Grey's tonight...**_

 _ **I'm ignoring the whole Amelia storyline, (I love Amelia tho) because the writers blew up that relationship and honestly, I don't think at this point Meredith is giving any fucks about Amelia's sobriety. She would be more worried about herself and her kids after being assaulted.**_

* * *

"Meredith still won't let anyone in to visit," Maggie says to Richard, "it's been two days, I'm worried about her."

"I'll go have a talk with her," he says sipping his coffee.

"She won't listen," Maggie reminds him.

"Just leave this to me, I know how to get through to Meredith Grey," he replies confidently.

* * *

Entering her room behind Cross who is pushing a wheelchair, Webber smiles at her and says, "Hop in."

She looks at him like he's crazy and doesn't move. "Cross, why don't you help Dr Grey get her butt into this chair," Webber says firmly, still smiling.

Cross locks the wheels and moves towards the bed and Meredith's hand flies up to signal him to stop. Then she slips her legs over the edge of the bed and slowly stands up, then Cross offers her his arm and she grabs him and then maneuvers into the chair. Then she grabs Cross's arm and points at the dry erase board and pen. He hands it to her and then Richard starts singing and pushing the chair out of the room.

Meredith is really confused now. She holds up the board, "Where we Going?"

Richard keeps singing.

"What's going on?" she asks next.

Richard ignores her and keeps pushing her out of the building. People wave to her as they go by and confused, she waves back. It's a beautiful day, she has to admit and the breeze is coming in off the sound so she can smell the ocean. Closing her eyes, she tries to just enjoy the break from the hospital room.

"The sun feels good on your face, now doesn't it?" Richards remarks as he pushes her wheelchair along the path across the street from the hospital.

Meredith just sits in the chair with her eyes closed, ignoring him.

"I understand that you saw the kids and it didn't go well," he says a few minutes later.

Meredith reaches down to release the brake on her wheelchair, she's not going to have this conversation with him.

Reaching down to relock the wheel, he says, "I get it, you don't want to talk about it. That's fine, then you can just listen because I've got something to say."

Resigning herself to being stuck there with him, she shrugs her shoulders and waits for him to talk.

"They've been through a lot and so have you. You're scared and so are those kids. They lost their father a year ago and now they see you hurt in a hospital bed, can you blame them for freaking out?" He asks looking over at her.

"Look I know that you're mad. Hell, you were mad before this happened. But don't be mad at Alex and Arizona, it's not their fault that your kids are scared right now. It's no one's fault Meredith. It is what it is. Now, I'm sure that it is hard to watch them cling to Arizona and Alex, but you can't blame them for that. Maggie told me this morning that Arizona has practically moved back into the house helping with the kids as much as she can. Did you know that?" He asks.

Meredith looks straight ahead, she didn't know that. No one told her, so how could she know it.

"Yeah, I didn't think so. Look, I don't know what's going on with you and Arizona and it's none of my business, but she's been there for you and right now, she's confused and hurt by how you're treating her," Richard says softly.

Meredith reacts to this by turning to him so she can see his face. Then she writes on the board, "She talked to you?"

"No, she hasn't talked to me. But I know her and from what I saw this morning, she's hurting over this, Meredith. She feels terrible about what happened. Now, from where I sit, it seems like you can either keep shutting people out and sit around being angry, or you can let the people who care about you, help you." Then he looks away to let that sink in a moment before adding, "And we bring you to the park on a beautiful afternoon".

Turning back to her, he reaches over and places his hand on her arm, "Meredith, I know that you feel alone right now, but you're not. There is a whole hospital full of people trying to help you, so stop being such a pain in the ass and let them."

* * *

Laying in bed that afternoon, Meredith spots Arizona out in the hallway. So she takes out her board and begins to write a message on it, but when she looks up, she notices that the blonde is standing at the desk with another doctor who has her hand on Arizona's back. Confused and hurt, Meredith picks up her water pitcher and throws it at the wall.

Penny must have been right outside, because she enters the room to check on her and notices Meredith glaring out the door at the blonde. Grabbing a towel, the resident starts cleaning up the water, "Dr Robbins is talking with Dr Stewart, who is covering your service. They knew each other before," Penny explains.

Meredith glares at her and then turns to look at the wall.

Penny leaves the room, as she walks by the two doctors, she nods towards Meredith's door and says something. Arizona turns around and hesitates. She was planning to introduce Sam to Meredith today, but after seeing her scowling, she changed her mind and instead they've just been going over patient charts.

"She saw you out here, you should go in and visit," Penny says encouraging her again.

So Arizona turns around nudges Sam and they turn around and go into the room.

"Hey Dr Grey, I thought you would like to meet Dr Stewart, she's covering your service," Arizona says cheerfully.

Meredith looks up and greets them neutrally, nodding when Sam steps forward to offer a handshake.

"Your hospital is great Dr Grey, I'm very impressed and uh, I'm happy to be here," Sam says, then realizing why she's there, she adds awkwardly, "though not under these circumstances of course."

Meredith shrugs and looks through them.

"Okay, well I just wanted to introduce you two," she stammers. "I'll stop by later to visit," Arizona adds hopefully, watching Meredith's response.

She shrugs again. There's so much that she wants to say to the blonde, but she doesn't know how to start, especially since she can't talk yet.

"Uh, okay. Bye," Arizona says again, disappointment in her voice.

* * *

"Damn, Arizona, when she gets her voice back, you are in for a hell of a talk," Sam exclaims once they are in the elevator.

"It doesn't seem fair for me to talk to her when she can't talk back, but maybe she needs to know how I'm feeling, because god only knows what's going on in her head," Arizona replies worriedly.

"You definitely should talk to her tonight, she looked at me like she wanted to kill me. I think she may have seen us talking at the nurses' station," Sam says nudging the blonde's shoulder.

"Shit, I forgot about that. Damn, I should probably go back and talk to her now," Arizona says looking up at Sam.

"Hey, who was that resident, again? The one who came out and talked to you?" Sam asks.

"Dr Blake, she's on Hunt's service, was on Meredith's and she's Callie's girlfriend," Arizona replies not really thinking.

"Uh, well I have news for you, she knows about you and Meredith," Sam points out.

"What? No, she couldn't. I mean how could she know?" Arizona asks nervously, "Maggie and Alex don't even know."

"One, she's a lesbian, so she's going to notice and read you differently. Two, she's probably noticed Meredith's reaction to you is different than it is to anyone else. I don't think you need to worry about it, she was rather discrete," Sam replies.

"What if she tells Callie?" Arizona asks.

"I wouldn't worry about that, Callie still thinks we're getting back together," Sam reminds her and wraps an arm around her shoulder playfully, just as the elevator doors open to reveal Callie waiting on the other side.

"Uh, hey Dr Torres," Sam says removing her arm from the blonde before exiting the elevator.

"Dr Stewart," Callie says staring at Arizona as she enters the elevator.

Entering the elevator, Callie waits for the doors to close and then clears her throat. "Just friends," she says looking over at the blonde.

"Just friends," Arizona repeats looking forward and willing the doors to open as the elevator arrives at her floor.

* * *

"Hey, can we talk?" Arizona asks stepping into Meredith's room a few hours later.

Meredith is sitting in the chair, she looks up and shrugs.

Arizona shuts the door behind her and then closes the blind on the window, before crossing the room to sit across from her on the edge of the bed. "I know it's not really fair that I get to talk and all you get to do is listen, so I haven't said much. But it's not because I don't have anything to say. I have lots to say, but I wasn't sure about saying it," the blonde stammers nervously.

Meredith's face softens and she points over to the table.

Arizona looks over and then realizes she wants the board and pen, so she hands it to her.

"I want to talk 2. Lots 2 say," she writes and then gestures for Arizona to go first.

"Okay, first," Arizona says nervously, then leans forward to press her lips to Meredith's. "I miss you."

Meredith quickly erases her board and writes, "Miss U 2."

Which makes Arizona laugh,"so considering how much you hate to text, you have to admit, this is kind of funny," Arizona says smiling at her.

Meredith smiles and nods in agreement.

"Meredith, nothing has changed for me, I still want to be with you," Arizona says looking her in the eye.

Meredith nods and reaches out to take her hand.

"I know that you saw me earlier with Sam, with Dr Stewart. And in the interest of full disclosure, she and I used to date a long time ago, when I first moved here, but we're just friends now. Callie thinks we're more, but I promise you that we're not. So don't listen to Callie if she gossips about us, trust me please," Arizona asks.

Meredith agrees, then writes on the board, "She's hot tho."

"She is and I'm sure her girlfriend thinks so too," Arizona replies carefully. Then she adds, "I think Penny may have figured us out and I don't know what to do, since we never had a chance to talk about this. Meredith, I don't know how you're feeling about us or me or anything," Arizona says staring intently at her trying to read her face.

Meredith holds her gaze a moment before writing a big heart on the board with the letter U in the middle of it and smiling as she turns it around to show her.

"You do?" Arizona asks surprised, "Me too," she says leaning forward pulling her close and pressing her lips to Meredith neck.

Meredith wraps her arms around the blonde tightly and Arizona realizes how lonely she must feel, not having the kids or anyone to touch. As they break apart, Arizona gets an idea.

"Hey, I'll be right back," she says smiling brightly at Meredith.

* * *

"Look who came to visit," Arizona says entering Meredith's room with Sofia about a half hour later.

Sofia walks over to the bed and hands Meredith a drawing of a mermaid and then climbs up on the bed. "Mom says that you can't talk," Sofia remarks as she snuggles in beside Meredith. "So can I read you a story?" Sofia asks.

Meredith nods yes quickly and Arizona hands her daughter the book she picked out to read and then steps back to look down the hall for Alex.

A few minutes later Zola and Bailey walk up to Arizona, but as soon as they hear Sofia's voice, they look in and see her with their mom and both go over and climb up on the bed. Meredith looks up excitedly at Arizona as the three kids surround her.

Alex hands Ellis to Arizona and she goes over to sit on the bed with her, Ellis squirms a bit then settles down and stares at Meredith.

"Can I read the next page?" Zola asks Sofia.

Sofia shares the book with her and they begin alternating pages. Bailey rests his head on Arizona's leg and pat's his mom's foot with his hand.

Meredith is beyond happy and she reaches her hand out to Arizona, the blonde takes it and gives it a squeeze. Then she shifts her position, so she can set Ellis in Meredith's other arm.

Alex stands proudly at the door, relieved to see them all together now with Meredith.

A few minutes later Maggie walks up and looks in, "How did this happen?" she asks.

"Hey, what's going on?" Callie asks approaching them.

"Check this out, Arizona asked me to bring the kids back and when we get here, Sofia's reading to Mer, Zola and Bailey went right in and climbed up on the bed with her," Alex explains excitedly. "It's beautiful, huh" he says watching them.

"Yeah," Callie says, realizing now that Penny may be right about Meredith and Arizona.

"Hi Mami!" Sofia says when she spots Callie in the doorway.

"Hi Mija," Callie says stepping into the room. "This looks like fun," she replies enthusiastically to the kids.

"Mom can't talk, so we're reading to her," Zola announces. "Alex, can I come read to mom tomorrow too?" she asks.

"Sure, I think your mom would like that," Alex replies.

* * *

"Wow, that was a great idea Arizona," Callie says as they head out of the room, while Meredith says goodbye to her kids. "Uh, if you want to say goodbye, I'll wait over here with Sofia," she offers.

Arizona looks up to see Alex and Maggie leaving with the kids, so she smiles at Callie shyly before saying, "Uh, thanks. I'll just be a minute."

Stepping back into the room, Meredith waves her over frantically and pulls her in for a hug, holding her tightly, Meredith's tears splash down her neck.

"Hey," Arizona says pulling back a little, so she can wipe away her tears. "It's going to be okay, I promise."

Meredith nods but doesn't want to let her go.

"Meredith, Callie's waiting with Sofia, I'm so sorry that I have to go now," Arizona says apologetically.

Meredith nods and holds up the board again to show that she wrote thank u inside a big heart.

Heading back out to where Callie and Sofia are waiting, Arizona has to admit she's beyond relieved that that worked.

"Hey little miss, we should go out to dinner tonight and celebrate," Arizona says giving her daughter a big kiss. "You were so amazing and helpful today, where should we go for dinner?"

"Red Tricycle!" Sofia exclaims. "Can Mami come with us?"

"Sure, if Mami's available," Arizona says looking over at Callie, "Are you available to have dinner with us?"

"Uh, sure. Are you sure?" Callie asks.

"Yes, join us. It's been a good day, come celebrate with us," Arizona says casually, as her phone buzzes in her pocket.

"Why didn't we think of this before now?" Meredith texts. "Thank you so much for today, xoxox."

Arizona reads the messages as they step in the elevator and she smiles.

Callie looks over at her, "Is everything okay?" she asks.

"It is now," Arizona replies, smiling broadly.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: Hope everyone has settled down now after the last episode of Grey's. I know it's really hard to watch these odd storylines that don't seem well written or thought out. And Penny is equal to Cross in my opinion, there's no reason for her to be there, the writers gave us more in the dinner party scene with AZ than they have ever given us with her and Callie. Honestly, I just miss fun flirty relationships that used to be the core of Grey's. Now all we get are constipated angsty relationships with undeveloped characters. Rant over, sorry.**_

* * *

"Hey I got your message, but I don't understand..." Arizona says entering Meredith's room that afternoon.

"I know, I sort of did that on purpose," Meredith replies sitting on the edge of the bed with a huge smile on her face.

"Oh my god! Oh my god, they took out the wires," Arizona says rushing over to her and touching her face.

"They did and all I could think of was this," Meredith says pulling the blonde's face down to her and kissing her.

"Hmm, I really missed this," Arizona says returning the kiss and sitting on the bed beside her.

"Ahem," Owen says from the doorway.

"Come in Owen," Meredith calls out.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt, I just needed to talk to you about your discharge plans," he says smiling shyly.

"Discharge plans? You're going home?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, I am getting out of here tomorrow, right Owen?" Meredith says looking over at him.

"You are, but we need to talk about this. Ah, Arizona will you be there at the house with her?" Owen asks.

Arizona looks over at Meredith, unsure how to respond.

"Maggie says that you have practically moved in, so just stay until I'm on both of my feet, please?" Meredith asks.

"Of course, but are you sure?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, I'm sure, unless you aren't sure," Meredith says worried now that she didn't ask.

"Okay, then it's settled," Arizona replies looking up at Owen and smiling.

* * *

"Just go easy with this boot on and you'll still want to elevate it a few times a day to keep the swelling down," Wilson instructs her.

"Where's Torres?" Meredith asks.

"Hunt said you wanted this right away, so I said that I would do it," she explains, "Torres is prepping for a knee replacement in OR 3."

"You're missing surgery to remove my cast and fit me for a boot?" Meredith asks, "Jo, thank you but you can't give up procedures."

"I'm not missing the procedure, I'm missing the prep," Jo points out.

"Callie would rather prep a patient for surgery than treat me? She's avoiding me isn't she?" Meredith asks.

"Little bit, yeah." Jo replies.

"We didn't tell anyone, we didn't have a chance and even Alex didn't know" Meredith says defensively.

"I know, he was kind of floored that he didn't notice you guys, but then he was sort of distracted with us fighting," Jo admits.

"And you two need to stop it. You love him and he loves you, now get back together and figure it out. Life is short, seriously," Meredith replies grabbing her arm to make the point.

"I know, I know. He's infuriating. His timing sucks. He doesn't listen or pay attention, he..." Jo stops talking as Meredith puts a finger on her lips.

"Wilson, I'm only going to say this one more time, you two love each other, so figure it out!" Meredith says sharply, "and you can't do that with him at my house and you at the loft," she points out.

"Uh, right. Okay, but you'll have to tell him to leave, because he thinks you need him more than I do right now," Jo replies.

"Okay, I'll take care of that. You just let him in when he comes back to the loft, okay?" Meredith asks.

Jo nods, "Okay, I will."

"Okay, so tell me what are people saying about me and Arizona?" she asks.

* * *

"Hey do you have a minute?" Arizona asks stopping by Callie's office later that day.

"Sure, what is it?" Callie asks looking up at the blonde.

"I'm going to stay with Meredith for a few weeks until she's on her feet. I just wanted you to know from me," Arizona explains.

"Well, I already heard it from Hunt, it's in her chart," Callie says, the irritation in her voice palpable.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you sooner but you were in surgery," Arizona replies.

"It's fine, Sofia will be happy to be there with Zola. So are you giving up your place or is this just temporary?" Callie asks, deciding that she should probably find out now, rather than later.

"Oh, it's temporary, Sofia and I will share a bedroom," Arizona says, "Callie, I'm sorry that this bothers you so much."

"That's not... I've known her a long time, or I thought I knew her." Callie replies. "Arizona, what you don't understand is that she and I have talked about bisexuality and she always said that she wasn't attracted to women that way."

"Well, I never got that vibe from her either. Well, not at first but then after spending time with her, I definitely got it, the vibe I mean," Arizona explains.

"Okay, I got it" Callie says uncomfortably. "Look, can we just go back to being awkward exes who don't talk about who we are dating?" she asks sarcastically.

* * *

"So they're together, together?" Amelia asks Maggie.

"Yes, she told me a few days ago through text and then this morning when she got her wires out, the first thing she asked me was if it would be okay if Arizona moved in to help with the kids because Alex was going back to the loft." Maggie explains.

"Have you seen them together, yet?" Amelia asks curiously.

"Well, yes, of course, I just didn't realize it. You know how Meredith hates to sleep alone, right? Well, Arizona was sleeping over a lot before the assault, but I didn't even think about it and neither did Alex," Maggie replies.

"But have you seen them now, because I have to say it's a bit weird for me," Amelia admits.

"Amelia, seeing her with anyone who's not Derek is going to be weird. Arizona is awesome though and I think this is good, we just need time to get used to it," Maggie says brightly. "Sure makes you wonder though, do you think everyone is sexually fluid?"

"I do actually. Probably women are more open to it though," Amelia replies.

"Wait, have you ever... you know, with a woman?" Maggie asks the brunette.

"Of course, haven't you?" Amelia answers.

"Uh no, I haven't, should I?" Maggie questions.

"Next time you're single, we'll have a girl's night, a real girl's night," Amelia says playfully before walking away.

* * *

"Okay, are you ready to go?" Alex asks Meredith the next day. "I've got your SUV, Torres said it would be easier for you to get in and out of it," he explains.

"Okay, that's fine. Just get me out of here," she says impatiently. "Wait, where's Arizona?"

"She's at the house with the kids. We gave the nanny the day off today," Alex answers.

"Hold up, I need a moment with Meredith," Webber says entering the room.

"I'll go pull the car around," Alex says leaving the room.

"Richard, I know what you're going to say, but you're wrong," Meredith says holding up her hand.

"You have no idea what I'm going to say Meredith. This isn't about you. I want to talk to you about Arizona," Richard says shutting the door behind him. "Robbins has been through a lot and I know that you have too. But she's not tough like you are and she isn't in this with you casually. Did you know that I was her wingman? I spent months going out with her to a lesbian bar trying to help her meet someone. Then one day she told me that she met someone, she didn't say who, just that it was someone really special and she was hopeful that this would be it for her," he explains.

Meredith flushes, "Richard, this just happened, but it's not casual. Although I didn't know that I was attracted to women like this, she's amazing and it's really good, so don't worry about us. We're good."

"Just go slow with this, it's new to both of you," he cautions, "and I don't want either of you to get hurt."

"Okay message received, now take me out of here. I want to get home and see my kids and Arizona," Meredith says impatiently.

* * *

"Okay guys, so your Mom's going to be here any minute," Arizona reminds Zola and Bailey. "Let's make sure everything is ready."

"Arizona, this is mom's favorite blanket," Zola says going over to the couch, "And she loves daisies," she points to the vase on the table.

"Okay, Zola you're right," Arizona says trying to calm herself down.

"She's home!" Bailey says from the window.

Arizona picks up Ellis and follows Zola over to the door and they wait for Meredith to come up the walk.

"Mommy, Mommy you're home," Bailey and Zola exclaim when she opens the door.

"I am home," she says bending down to kiss them both before leaning her cane against the wall so that she can greet Arizona and Ellis. "Hi," she says softly before turning to kiss Arizona on the lips, but she turns her head so the kiss lands on her cheek and Meredith looks at her confused.

"Uh, hey let's get you settled in and Alex can take your things upstairs to your room," Arizona says lightly, leading them all into the living room.

"Mom," Zola says taking her hand to lead her to the couch, "sit here, we have a bunch of movies and some magazines for you to look at."

"Oh, well thank you honey. This is really nice, you guys have me all set," Meredith says sitting down and looking up at Arizona, who realizes that she's still holding Ellis.

Handing Meredith the baby, Arizona looks around and then says, "Why don't I just go upstairs and put your things away."

"Stay, sit with me," Meredith says and the blonde stops in her tracks.

"Don't you want a little time alone with the kids?" Arizona asks.

"Arizona, I want time with my family and you are a part of it, so sit with us, please," Meredith repeats.

Bailey goes over and grabs the blonde's hand and pulls her back to the couch.

"See," Meredith says smiling at her son as he climbs up into Arizona's lap.

"Hey, do you need anything? I put your meds in your bathroom, but here's your next dose," Alex says coming down the stairs and crossing the room to hand her the pill.

"Just a glass of water to take the pill," Meredith replies.

"Oh right," he says and returns a few minutes later with a glass of water and sets it down in front of her.

"Alex, relax. I'm home and it's fine. Did you talk with Jo yet?" Meredith asks, she told him on the way home that he needs to fix things with her.

"Yeah, I called her and I'm going to go over there later," he replies. "But you'll call if you need anything, right?" he asks.

"Alex, I've relied on you too much lately, go to Jo. She loves you, big time loves you, so go home. I'll be fine," Meredith says smiling over at Arizona.

"Okay, okay. Uh, here are your keys then and I'll just go get my stuff," he says looking around the room a bit lost.

* * *

"Arizona, please just come sit down with me," Meredith says hobbling into the kitchen on her cane.

"I'm almost done. I wanted to make lunch for you and the kids tomorrow," she explains.

"The nanny will be here to help me tomorrow, you don't have to do that," Meredith says going over to her.

"I know, but I wanted to," Arizona replies.

"Thank you," Meredith says smiling at her. "I didn't ask you to stay here to do all of this though and it's starting to feel like you're avoiding me."

"I'm not avoiding you, it's just that this is your first night home and the kids are excited to have you back," Arizona replies.

"Arizona, I told Zola that you are my girlfriend and she understood, it's okay to kiss me in front of the kids," Meredith explains.

"You told Zola? But Meredith, I haven't told Sofia yet," Arizona replies confused. "And Sofia's going to be here this weekend."

"So we tell her," Meredith replies.

"I have to talk to Callie first. We agreed that we would let each other know before we introduce our girlfriends to our daughter," Arizona explains.

"But she already knows me, that rule doesn't apply," Meredith counters.

"Okay, so you have a point, but I still think that I need to let Callie know before we tell her," Arizona replies. "Now, why don't you just go in and relax on the couch, I'll be ten more minutes, I promise," Arizona says, leaning over to kiss her.

"I'm timing you," Meredith teases.

A few minutes later, Arizona heads into the living room to find Meredith dozing on the couch. "You're sleeping," she whispers in her ear as she sits down beside her.

"I'm dozing, not sleeping," Meredith counters opening up one eye to look at the blonde and decide if she's really done for the night.

"Well it is getting late, we should go upstairs and get you settled into bed, you'll feel much better, trust me," Arizona says playfully, "I'm a doctor."

"Ha," Meredith responds, "But I do like the thought of being in my own bed, especially if you'll join me?"

"I would love to join you," Arizona replies, standing up and waiting for Meredith to stand up too.

* * *

"Do you need help in there" Arizona asks when she hears Meredith drop something in the sink.

"No, I'm fine," she mumbles.

"I'm going to use the restroom down the hall, I'll be right back, okay?" Arizona asks.

"Okay," Meredith replies.

A few minutes later, Arizona returns to the bedroom and hears Ellis awake in the crib, "Hey pretty girl," she says picking her up and sitting down in the rocking chair.

Meredith comes out of the bathroom and stops to admire Arizona rocking Ellis in the chair and singing softly to her.

She walks over to them and leans down and kisses both of them, "You are amazing and beautiful," Meredith whispers to her, leaning in to nuzzle her daughter.

"She's back asleep, do you want to put her back down?" Arizona asks softly.

Meredith nods and carefully takes her back over to the crib and lays her down. When she turns back around, Arizona is sitting on the bed removing her prosthetic.

Wordlessly Meredith sits down on the bed and removes the boot from her left foot before slipping into the bed beside her.

"You know I've waited so long to talk, that I don't know what to say first," Meredith says looking over at the blonde.

"The last time, we were in this bed together was almost the last time and it really scared me, because I hadn't told you how I feel. I'm crazy about you and I didn't think I'd ever feel this way again, so it was overwhelming and scary, but now I've had six weeks to think about it and it's not scary at all. I love you Arizona," she says snuggling into the blonde's arms.

Before Arizona replies, she intertwines their fingers,"The therapist told me after my accident that pain changes people, it makes them trust less, overthink things and shut people out, so I understood, when you pushed me away. I mean I did it to Callie and still do it with people. So what I'm trying to say is that the time was good for me too. Being with you scared me too, because I didn't think I'd have this again after Callie," Arizona replies, "Meredith I love you too."

"So how do we do this?" Meredith asks. "Do we date? Are we dating?"

"Well, we're sort of living together with your kids and your sister, so I don't really know, um, how do we start dating now?" Arizona asks laughing.

"Well, I'm going to talk to the nanny about her schedule and I'll work something out. Because when I'm back on my feet, we're going out together. Maybe we can go to that bar that you took Richard too." Meredith teases.

"Uh, you want to go to a lesbian bar on our first date?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, those women need to know that you're taken," Meredith replies.

"You mean all the women I was too scared to talk to?" Arizona retorts.

"I find it hard to believe that you could sit in any bar and not be inundated with conversation," Meredith teases. "We used to watch you at Joe's, Cristina and I would put bets on which woman in the bar would approach you first."

"Really? And who won more often?" Arizona asks.

"Cristina, she has really good gaydar," Meredith explains.

"That is not surprising," Arizona admits. "Have you spoken with her?"

"We text Skyped the last two weeks, but I was going to call her tomorrow," Meredith replies.

"How do you think she'll react to this, to us?" Arizona asks nervously.

"Are you worried about it?" Meredith asks, "She won't even be surprised, because I picked you and she picked Callie."

"I'm scared to ask what that means," Arizona replies confused.

"Sometimes we would lay in this bed in this room and talk about who we would want to be with if we were lesbians. Cristina picked Callie but I picked you," Meredith explains.

"Yep, that's just as weird as I thought it was going to be," Arizona replies covering her face with her hand.

"I've had a girl crush on you for a long time, on the outside you're all sweet and perky, but you've got this really tough girl vibe underneath it, that's really hot," she says pulling Arizona's hands away from her face and kissing her.

Caught up in the conversation, Arizona decides to confess as well. "Hmm, okay so I'll admit that I understood why people thought Derek was McDreamy and everything, but you have this mischievous twinkle in your eyes when you smile sometimes that I always thought that you were the real McDreamy," Arizona confesses, before kissing her again.

Returning the kiss, Meredith mumbles, "Talking is overrated."


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: here's today's chapter my friends, I hope it tides you over as I will be working the next few days. But will try to post a chapter for you tomorrow between shifts.**_

* * *

"Arizona, where are you going?" Meredith asks.

"Mer, today has been really bad and I can't do this. I'm sorry. I can't," Arizona says turning around to leave and shutting the door behind her.

Meredith sits alone on the couch confused as to what just happened. One minute she was dozing on the couch waiting for Arizona to get home and the next minute they're arguing about her not calling and now she's gone.

Grabbing her phone, Meredith types out a text, then remembers that Arizona's driving, so she tosses the phone down. Damn it! she swears to herself.

Half an hour later Meredith, now upstairs getting ready for bed, sends the text and waits.

* * *

Sitting on her couch drinking a glass of scotch, Arizona can't stop thinking about the case today. It was a procedure that she's done multiple times successfully. Replaying the surgery in her head, she keeps trying to figure out what she could have done differently.

Her phone buzzes and she looks at it just long enough to see that it is a text from Meredith. Closing her eyes she drains the glass and sets it down, then picks up the phone and reads the message. Quickly, she types a message and hits send before setting the phone down on the table and picking up the bottle to pour herself another drink.

* * *

The phone buzzing wakes Meredith up. She's dozing in bed with Ellis in her arms. Carefully, she crosses the room and lays the baby down in the crib, before returning to the bed to read the message from Arizona.

"I'm sorry. Today was bad. Tomorrow will be better."

* * *

"That was a tough one yesterday," Richard says following Arizona into the elevator the next morning. "How are you?"

Looking down, not wanting to meet his eyes, she replies, "Richard, I've performed that procedure multiple times, each one resulting in the patient continuing on to give birth to a healthy baby. I cannot stop replaying the entire surgery in my mind, what happened makes no sense. She should be up in recovery, not downstairs in the morgue." Arizona replies confused and angry.

"Now, Dr Robbins, you know as well as I do that doing everything right does not guarantee you one damn thing," he reminds her. Hesitating a moment, he's a little unsure about saying anything about the phone call he received late last night, but since they're alone in the elevator, he decides to mention it. "Meredith called me last night, she was, uh, worried about you," he says looking over at her.

"I'm sorry about that, it won't happen again," Arizona replies, still looking ahead.

"Arizona, she's afraid. What are you doing? You just going to sit around your place alone and shut her out?"

"Richard, I know that I've shared a lot with you in the past few months, but let's dial this back a bit, okay?" Arizona says uncomfortably.

"No, that's not how this works. We're friends now, if you can talk to me about being lonely and single, then you can talk to me about this," he says firmly as the doors open and Arizona walks out of the elevator and leaves him there alone. "Later, we'll talk about this later," he calls out as the doors close.

* * *

"You look like crap," Alex says as she walks towards him.

"Thanks," she says taking the stack of files from the nurse and turning to enter her office.

"Hey, I heard about your case yesterday," he says following her. "That sucks, anything I can do?"

Setting the files on her desk she looks through him, "do you need something?" she asks.

"Arizona, are you okay?" he asks reaching out to touch her.

"No Alex. I lost a patient yesterday and I don't know why!" she shouts at him. Then crossing the room, she turns around quickly to admit, "I went home to Meredith and we had a fight, then I spent the night drinking scotch alone at my place, so no, I am not alright," she says angrily.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asks again crossing over and putting his hands on her shoulders.

"No, but thank you for asking. I just need to be alone right now," Arizona replies.

Hesitating for a moment, Alex is torn between hugging her and leaving her alone, she's hard to read sometimes, but sensing that she's more pissed then hurt he chooses the latter.

"Okay, I know the drill," he says and shuts the door.

* * *

"Alex, is Arizona here yet? Her car wasn't in the parking lot when I got here," Callie asks.

"She just got here, but you don't want to go in there right now. She lost a patient last night and she's pissed," he says looking up from a chart.

"All right, but is she okay?" Callie asks concerned.

"No, she's pissed and hungover. Apparently, she spent last night alone at her place drinking scotch," he replies.

"Send Cross downstairs and tell him to ask Amber to make Arizona's kick in the ass coffee, maybe get her two of them. They will help her with the hangover," Callie informs him, "But the pissed off part, well, she won't get over that until she looks at the autopsy report."

* * *

Meredith hates that she called Richard last night, but she wasn't sure what to do. Halfway through the call she realized that she called him because that's what she did when Derek reacted this way to losing a patient. Derek would pick a fight, storm out and return to that damn trailer in the woods and drink alone for days sometimes. And following him never worked out and often made it worse. She sighs, remembering the time he batted her engagement ring into the woods.

Meredith realizes now how much Derek and Arizona are alike. She and Callie spent countless nights trading stories of frustration about their respective spouses. How did she not see this before? She asks herself.

* * *

The next morning Meredith comes downstairs to find Arizona feeding the kids breakfast.

"What are you doing?" Meredith asks confused.

"I'm helping with breakfast, Maggie told me that she had an early day and the nanny is coming late," Arizona replies looking up from feeding the baby.

"Arizona," Meredith starts to say angrily, then looking down at Bailey and Zola, she stops talking.

"Zola, why don't you and Bailey go upstairs and get ready, Mrs Miller will be here soon," she says to the two older kids.

Waiting for the kids to leave the room, Meredith sits down and takes the baby's spoon away from her, "Arizona, you don't get to walk out on me, not talk to me for an entire day and then show up like nothing's happened and help take care of my kids!"

"I'm sorry. Maggie asked me to help this morning, so I'm here helping," she explains.

"No Arizona, that's not how this works," Meredith says angrily. "We're not okay, so you don't just show up here and pretend that things are okay."

"Meredith I'm sorry. The other night a pregnant woman died on my table, which means that I didn't lose just one patient, I lost two. I almost didn't even come here that night, but I did because I thought that you would be asleep and I wouldn't have to face you. But when I came in the door, you looked up at me with care and concern, and I-I felt like I didn't deserve it. I wasn't a good person or even a good surgeon, because I failed and my patient died. I left because telling you would have been admitting it and admitting it would have devastated me," Arizona replies before standing up to walk across the room, her back to Meredith, she wraps her arms around herself defensively.

Meredith sets the spoon down and stands to face her, "Arizona we are not gods, we're just surgeons. And even when we do everything right, sometimes the patient still dies," she replies warmly. "I stayed up because DeLuca told me that you lost a patient and I was worried about you."

Arizona turns around to face her, tears sliding down her cheeks, her lip trembling.

Meredith can't take seeing her like that and practically launches herself across the room. Placing her hands on the blonde's shoulders, she says softly, "But you don't get to shut me out, I love you. Please don't shut me out again," before wrapping her arms around her and kissing her tears away softly.

Arizona returns the embrace, letting go of her own pain and burying her face into Meredith's neck. "I love you too," she whispers.

* * *

"The report came back and you did nothing wrong," Bailey says entering Arizona's office and slapping the autopsy on her desk. "She had an undisclosed clotting issue."

"I know, I just read it online," Arizona replies. "And I am updating my surgical protocol to include a Protime test in the blood work," she adds.

"Well, I am signing off on this case, Dr Robbins, there is no need for a peer review," Bailey replies.

"Thank you Chief," Arizona replies watching her leave. Then she picks up her phone and texts the news to Meredith.

"Hey what did Bailey say?" Alex asks rushing into her office.

"No peer review. The patient had an undisclosed clotting issue, I am updating my protocol to include a Protime test with the blood work though, hopefully next time we'll catch it before we're in the operating room," Arizona explains.

"Okay, so now can we talk about why you're moving out of Meredith's?" Alex asks leaning on her desk.

"Alex, this was only temporary, I didn't move in with her. I was just staying there until she was ready to go back to work and she meets with Bailey today. Now how are you and Jo doing?" Arizona asks.

* * *

"Bailey called and she wants me to go to therapy before I can come back," Meredith informs her over coffee.

"That's understandable since it happened in the hospital, how are you feeling about it?" Arizona asks.

"I know she's just looking out for me, so I'm fine with it," Meredith replies.

"I think that this may be a good time for me to move back to my place, you need time to adjust," Arizona says taking her hand and intertwining their fingers.

"I know that we talked about that before but this isn't you shutting me out right?" Meredith asks.

"No, it's not," Arizona replies and pulls a key out of her pocket and hands it to her, "In fact, here is a key to my place," she says. "And I took some of Sofia's baby stuff out of storage, so you and the kids can come over and stay with us any time," she adds smiling.

"So let me see if I understand this, you are moving back into your place, but you are giving me a key?" Meredith teases.

"Yes and I'd like to point out that my place is closer to the hospital than yours," Arizona replies playfully.

"Interesting that you would point that out," Meredith says wiggling her eyebrows and moving in to kiss her.

"Did I also mention that I took the morning off?" Arizona says leaning in to return the kiss.

"And the nanny just took the kids to the park, why are we sitting here in the kitchen?" Meredith says jumping up and grabbing the blonde's hand. "You owe me make up sex, we had our first fight this week."

"That wasn't a fight, that was a misunderstanding," Arizona replies following her up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs Meredith turns and says, "I disagree, now we are having another fight, so you need to make that up to me too," she says playfully.


	8. Chapter 8

"I like having you here, maybe we should talk about making this more permanent?" Meredith asks.

Arizona looks over at her and smiles, naked and still dazed from the last orgasm. "I think you're trying to take an advantage of this situation," the blonde replies playfully.

"Because I am," Meredith replies kissing her again before adding, "But Arizona, can you honestly say that you haven't thought about it?" She questions.

"I have," she replies placing her hand on the darker blonde's chest. "Of course I have, but we can't rush into this. Let's get through the next month, okay?" She answers.

"You think that something is going to happen in therapy," Meredith replies, suddenly understanding the blonde's hesitation.

"Meredith, we've both been in therapy after a traumatic event, it always brings up things, things that you maybe haven't dealt with yet and you'll need some time and space to do that, which you won't have with me here." Arizona says pulling her into her arms and kissing her.

* * *

"I'm not angry. Dr Bailey is just looking out for me," Meredith replies. Look, I know the drill and this should be quick, I've been in therapy before, I've worked through the big stuff. I just need you to patch me up and send me back out there."

"Meredith, you were attacked by a patient in your own hospital and you consider that small stuff?" the psychiatrist asks.

"Have you read my file?" she asks smiling.

"I have. You've been through a lot," he replies.

"True, that file is a real page turner," she quips before adding, "And a lot of people have died, people that I loved, but I'm still here and I'm fine," she replies in a straightforward matter.

"Meredith, something terrible happened to you," he says pointing at her for emphasis.

"It did and it sucks. But terrible things happen every day, this time they happened to me," Meredith counters.

The psychiatrist looks at her, carefully evaluating her response. For someone who's been through what she's been through, she seems remarkably poised, which either means she's in denial or she's an extraordinary survivor. And it's his job to figure out which it is.

"Look, I got roughed up and bounced around by a patient with a serious head injury who didn't know what he was doing," she explains. "He was in a type of fugue state, that..."

"Meredith I know what a fugue state is and I've read the hospital's report on what happened. But I'm not asking about the patient. Meredith, I'm asking about you," he replies.

* * *

"Hey, are you still good to take Sofia tonight?" Callie asks, stopping by Arizona's office late that morning.

"Uh, yeah. I'm good," she replies wondering if Callie heard that she's moving back to her place and that's why she's asking, but instead of bringing it up, she says, "Oh and thanks for the coffee yesterday". Arizona knew as soon as Cross handed her the coffee that Alex must have talked to Callie.

"No problem, I'm just glad it all worked out. Not that I thought it wouldn't, I mean of course it wasn't a mistake on your part," Callie stammers.

Arizona stares at her ex a moment deciding whether to respond or change the subject, deciding the latter is safer, she asks, "So you have a date tonight with Penny?"

"Oh we're talking about this again?" Callie asks surprised. "Yeah, I'm making her dinner tonight and we're going to talk. Webber promised me that she has the night off."

"Of course he did, Catherine's coming to Seattle tonight," Arizona points out, checking her phone after it buzzed on her desk.

Callie can't help but wonder if everything really is okay between Arizona and Meredith.

"Uh, Maggie invited some of us over to the house tomorrow night and it sounded like you weren't going to be there, are you and Meredith okay?" Callie asks.

"Meredith and I are fine, but Sofia and I could use some time together and it was time for us to go back to my place, staying with Meredith and the kids was only temporary," Arizona reminds her.

"Right, but it seemed like it was going well," Callie points out.

"Calliope, Meredith and I can't rush into this and moving in together this soon, especially after her assault would definitely be a mistake," Arizona explains.

"But how do you just go back to living separately after living together for almost a month?" Callie asks.

"I don't know, but we have to figure it out," she replies with obvious concern.

* * *

"So Callie has a date with Penny tonight?" Meredith asks as she sits in traffic on her way home from therapy.

"Yeah, why do you sound so surprised?" Arizona wonders, as she enters her office to sit and talk to Meredith more privately.

"Well, honestly I don't understand them together. The more I get to know Penny the less she seems like Callie's type. And you know Callie, she just really hates to be alone and Penny doesn't seem to want to be with her, so I don't get it," Meredith explains.

"You think Callie has a type?" Arizona can't help but ask.

"Yes, everyone has a type," Meredith replies. "But we can talk more about that later. Hey, do you want me to pick up Sofia, her school is right on my way?" she points out.

"Uh, I'm sure that she would rather spend the afternoon with you and Bailey than be in daycare, but are you sure that you're up for it?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, Arizona I'm up for it. I have three kids, one more isn't a big deal and Sofia is great with Bailey," Meredith reminds her.

"Okay, thank you. I'll call the school and let them know," Arizona replies. Hanging up the phone, she smiles broadly, pleased that Meredith thought about Sofia and wanted her at the house with her instead of in daycare.

* * *

"Oh my gosh, the house smells wonderful," Arizona exclaims as she enters the house.

"Momma!" Sofia rushes to her, "Zola and I helped cook dinner."

"That's awesome honey," Arizona replies giving her a kiss on the head. Setting her things down, she follows her daughter into the dining room, where Bailey and Zola are sitting at the table. Bailey waves at her and Zola looks at her shyly.

"Zola, did you set the table? It looks amazing," Arizona says resting a hand on the little girl's shoulder.

"Thanks, Sofia and Bailey helped," Zola replies, then adds excitedly, "Mom baked a cake."

Looking over at Meredith, she says, "You've been busy this afternoon. And the cake looks beautiful."

"Hi," she says approaching the blonde and kissing her lightly. "I, uh, may have gone a bit overboard on dinner."

"You think?" Arizona teases, looking at the state of the kitchen.

* * *

After dinner, Arizona cleans up the kitchen with Zola and Sofia's help, while Meredith takes Bailey and Ellis upstairs to get them ready for bed.

"Can we go upstairs now?" Zola asks.

Turning around to look at the two girls, Arizona smiles, "yes, you can go upstairs now and thank you for your help."

"Momma will you read with me tonight?" Sofia asks.

Arizona stops what she's doing and walks over to her daughter, "Sof, how about I come up to tuck you in a little early and we read then? Remember this is our last night staying over here. We're going to be back at our house tomorrow, remember?" she reminds her daughter.

Sofia nods, then asks, "Momma can they come visit us at our house?"

"Yes, little miss they can and I'm sure that they will," Arizona replies.

* * *

"Dinner was great, but what's going on? I've never known you to cook like this before," Arizona asks when Meredith returns from putting the kids to bed.

"Izzy always told me that cooking was therapeutic, I guess maybe it is," she confesses.

"So therapy made you cook a three course meal?" Arizona asks playfully.

"Kind of," Meredith says sitting down on the stool watching Arizona finish cleaning. "I came home and the nanny took the kids out for a walk and I didn't have anything to do, so I came in here and started looking around. The next thing I know I'm baking a cake and you should have seen how happy the kids were when they came back. I guess that's why mother's bake cakes, of course, if you do it regularly the kids probably don't care as much. I never bake cakes, so they thought it was someone's birthday."

Arizona dries off her hands and walks over to Meredith, "My mom baked cakes for me and Tim, so coming home to a cake, was a really amazing surprise. Thank you," she says leaning in to kiss her.

"I'm sorry that the kitchen was such a mess though. I need to work on that," Meredith replies.

"Yes, you do," Arizona admits, laughing softly.

"I never had this, as a child. My mom didn't cook or bake. We ate take out or at the hospital. Am I doing it right?" Meredith asks seriously.

"You are doing it right and your kids are well adjusted normal kids," Arizona says wrapping her arms around her.

"When I was driving home with Sofia today, she asked me a lot of questions," Meredith informs Arizona. "You're right, you two need some time together without us," she admits.

"She asked me to read with her tonight, I told her that I would go up early to read to her before bed," Arizona replies with concern in her voice.

"I really like having you and Sofia here with us, but I understand why you're going back to your place," she adds, but tomorrow it will be really hard to not have you here," Meredith says standing up to kiss her and then taking her hand she leads her into the living room.

As they sit down on the couch, Arizona asks, "How about we have lunch tomorrow after your appointment?"

"Can you get away for lunch? We won't have a moment alone if I come to the hospital," Meredith points out.

"Yes, I can. I have a light day tomorrow, since I need to get settled back into the house," she replies.

"Even better, we can have lunch at your place," Meredith says raising an eyebrow suggestively.

* * *

"I can't believe that she canceled on me last night, can someone remind me why I am trying to date a resident?" Callie laments.

"I don't know and I think you should just stop trying," Meredith replies to her friend.

"Dating residents suck," Alex replies taking a sip of his beer.

"Well it's not like we didn't spend our nights off drinking together when we were residents," Meredith reminds him.

"Well, we all lived here together, so it made sense for us to spend nights off together," he points out.

"I miss sex," Callie says wistfully. "Penny and I had great sex, I just want to have great sex again."

"Jo and I had great sex," Alex adds. "Had being the key word. I don't know why I moved back in, she barely talks to me."

"Beginning of the relationship sex is so good, you're each learning what the other likes and you're exploring, it's really the best sex," Callie continues.

"Jo and I always have sex like that," Alex adds.

"Guys, stop talking about sex with residents in front of the Chief," Meredith chides them.

"I'm just eating my pizza," Bailey replies, not really paying attention to their conversation.

"So where's Arizona tonight?" Alex asks and Maggie glares at him.

"She's at her place with Sofia," Meredith replies getting up for more wine.

"I told you not to ask that!" Maggie says hitting his arm.

"What's the big deal, it's not like we weren't all sitting here wondering about it," he points out.

"Not me, you know why I wasn't wondering?" Bailey asks, "Because it's none of my business, that's why."

Callie follows Meredith into the kitchen. "Um, everything's okay with you two though, right?" she asks, watching Meredith open a bottle of wine.

"Yeah, we are. She's just really concerned about us going too fast," Meredith replies. "Sofia and I had a talk yesterday and she doesn't know about Penny?"

"Okay so this is awkward," Callie replies caught off guard by the question.

"I don't mean to pry. I was just surprised, it's been several months that you've been seeing her, I just would have thought that by now, you would have introduced them," Meredith explains.

"Uh, well Sofia's met Penny, but she doesn't know that I'm seeing her," Callie answers. "It's better this way, now Penny can only break my heart and not Sofia's."

* * *

"How was your evening?" Arizona asks that night when Meredith calls her.

"It was terrible, Callie and Alex sat around bitching about their relationships, Maggie sat terrified on the couch that one of them would say something about her and DeLuca in front of Bailey and I just sat there wishing I was with you instead," Meredith replies.

"Wow, sorry I missed it," Arizona replies sarcastically.

"I know that they mean well, but I want them to stop coming over. I can be alone. I've done alone before, it doesn't bother me, besides I'm not really alone the kids are here," she points out.

"We know you can be alone, you disappeared for almost a year," Arizona reminds her.

"That was different, Derek died and I found out that I was pregnant," Meredith explains, "Wait, is that what this is about? Are you worried that I'll freak out and disappear again?"

"Meredith, a lot has happened. And I would understand if you needed time to sort it out, but I couldn't take it if you disappeared on me now," Arizona admits.

"Arizona, I wouldn't do that to you. Please believe me, I disappeared because I was grieving for Derek and when I found out I was pregnant, I couldn't stay here and be the sad pregnant widow," she replies.

"Meredith I get that, but are you sure that you can stay here and be with me. I know that people at the hospital know about us, but when you come back to work, people will look at you differently. They already look at me differently and I'm just really worried about how you're going to feel under this new scrutiny," Arizona points out.

"Arizona, I don't care about how the people at the hospital see me. I am in love with you and that's all they'll see and it's what's important. We live in Seattle and two women together isn't shocking any more to people, yes some will be surprised by it and maybe they didn't expect it of me, but they'll get used to it," she counters.

"What about you Meredith? Have you really thought this through, what it means to be with another woman?" Arizona asks softly.

"Of course, I've thought it through. Arizona, I am in love with you and you are most definitely a woman," she replies getting impatient with this conversation.

"But today you said that you haven't mentioned it to your therapist," Arizona reminds her.

"You think because I haven't told the therapist about you, that I'm hiding this and I'm ashamed?" Meredith asks.

"Why else would you not tell him?" Arizona asks.

"Maybe because this therapy is about being evaluated for PTSD and getting back to work. It's not about my personal life and how I'm adjusting to being in love with a woman!" Meredith getting angry.


	9. Chapter 9

"Meredith let's talk about when you were in the hospital, who visited you the most?" the psychiatrist asks.

"That would be Alex, he was there right after it happened and he never left my side. He's my person, we've been friends a long time. And he's been there for me ever since Derek died," Meredith explains.

"I see, so Alex was there when you woke up and he stayed there with you the entire time?"

"Well, he also helped Maggie with the kids. He had just moved in with us. Remember, he had asked his girlfriend to marry him and they had a fight and she booted him out," Meredith reminds him.

"Sounds like you and Alex have been through a lot together. Do you have feelings for Alex? Are you in love with Alex?" the doctor asks.

"Me in love with Alex?" she asks smiling, "no, I'm in love with Arizona," she blurts out happily.

"And Arizona is?" the doctor asks surprised by this remark.

"Arizona is a friend and colleague, we spent a lot of time together after I moved back to the house I grew up in. Arizona's gone through a lot, we were in the plane crash together and she lost her leg. But she was with Callie, they were married. But they're not now. They've been divorced for several years," Meredith explains.

"Meredith this is our third session and you've spoken to me about being alone and now you're admitting that you're in love with someone, that doesn't sound like you're alone," he points out. "How long have you been in love with her?"

"We had just gotten together the weekend before the assault. I mean we'd been moving towards it for months, but that weekend was when we finally admitted to each other how we felt, so it feels like that was the beginning," she admits.

"Okay, so that was the beginning and then you're assaulted and in the hospital. You said Alex was there, where was Arizona?" He asks.

"She was there too. She stepped in and ran my service and her own, then she trained the surgeon who came in to take my place while I was out. She visited me all the time, but since no one knew that we were together so she wasn't open about it at first," Meredith answers.

"Do your friends know about this relationship now?" He asks.

"Yes, everyone knows and they're really supportive. Well it was hard at first because, well Callie is one of my best friends and it's her ex, so that was a bit awkward. And of course, I've never been with a woman before so there was that too," Meredith admits. "But they all know now and Arizona's been staying with me since I got out of the hospital."

"Okay, let's talk about that. You've never been with a woman before and you've known Arizona how long?" he asks.

"You know, I'm really not here to talk about this, my relationship with Arizona isn't why I'm here," she reminds him.

"Meredith, you've talked about all of your friend's relationships, but you don't want to talk about your own?" He questions.

"Arizona and I just argued about this last night," Meredith says, resigning herself to the conversation.

"You argued with her about what exactly?" He asks.

"We were talking yesterday afternoon and I mentioned that I hadn't told you about her and she was worried about it. Then last night we were talking on the phone and we argued about it, she thinks that my not discussing it with you means that I haven't really accepted it, I guess."

"Wait, I thought that she lived with you, why were you talking to each other on the phone, was she at work?" He asks trying to keep up.

"No, she moved out yesterday." Meredith replies.

"I see," he replies carefully considering his next question.

"Look, here's the situation. Arizona and Callie have a daughter almost the same age as my daughter Zola. They share custody of Sofia and we've all been friends a long time, the girls are best friends. Arizona just moved in temporarily until I could return to work," she explains.

"But you haven't returned to work and she's moved out," he counters.

"She decided to move back to her place while I'm in therapy," Meredith replies, "She thinks I should have space to figure all of this out"

"It sounds like Arizona has been in therapy before," he remarks.

"We all have," Meredith quips.

"Was Arizona at the hospital during the shooting?" he asks.

"Yes, she and Callie were together then. Then we were all on the plane that crashed," Meredith replies softly.

"Who was on the plane that crashed Meredith?" he asks.

"Derek, Cristina, Arizona, Mark and Lexie," she replies, a distant look in her eye.

"Cristina is your friend who moved to Zurich and Mark, Lexie and Derek are gone, so now it's just you and Arizona left?" He asks.

"Yes, but you can't say it like that. The plane crash has nothing to do with me and Arizona being together now," she says angrily.

* * *

"Meredith, what happened?" Arizona asks rushing into her house.

"I couldn't go home after therapy so I came here and then I needed to see you," she says tearfully.

"I'm here," Arizona replies taking her into her arms. "Just breathe."

After a few minutes, Meredith pulls back, "I told him. About us, I talked about you in therapy today," she admits.

"I'm sorry about last night, I shouldn't have pushed you," Arizona says apologizing.

"But you were right. Look at me, I told him and now I'm a mess," she says crying.

"Meredith, I don't understand," she says sitting back to look at her.

"Everything is a mess in my head. It was so clear to me before. We were just us, we got close, developed feelings for each other and then fell in love. It all made sense to me. But now it's all mixed up with the shooting and the plane crash and Derek. What if I get through therapy and this isn't real?" she asks.

"Meredith this is real. Just because it's all mixed up in your head right now, doesn't mean that we aren't real. You just need time to sort it out again," Arizona begins to explain, but her pager interrupts her.

"Damn it, I need to get back to the hospital. Stay here, I'll be back as soon as I can," Arizona says rapidly.

"No, I'll be fine. Just call me later," Meredith says wiping her eyes and pulling herself together.

"I will," Arizona says kissing her quickly before rushing out.

* * *

"You were wrong you know, about the plane crash and Derek's death, neither of those things have anything to do with why I'm with Arizona now," Meredith says angrily as she sits down to begin the next session.

"I didn't say they were related Meredith," he replies.

"Okay, so maybe you inferred that they were related," she counters.

"No, I didn't infer that either. Should we talk about why you thought they might be related?" he asks.

"A couple of years ago, a small plane crashed into a building and the injured were brought to our hospital," Meredith begins to explain. "I don't know why, but all of the sudden I had to find Arizona. I looked everywhere for her and I began to panic when I couldn't find her. But then I found her, she was also freaked out and she was sitting on the floor in a supply room."

"Meredith there are many supply rooms in the hospital, how is it that you found the right one, the one that she was hiding in?" he asks.

"Well, I went up to her unit and she was in the one near her office, I wonder why she wasn't in her office though?" Meredith asks.

"I think you know why, she was scared and hiding, which is probably why you didn't look in her office first," he points out.

"Oh right, well we sat together on the floor for a few minutes and really we calmed each other down. Then we spent the rest of the day working on the victims. The plane crashed into a building where a prenatal yoga class was, Arizona is a fetal surgeon, she had so many patients that day," Meredith remembers.

"Now where was Derek when this happened?" he asks.

"I didn't know where he was at that time. The White House had called looking for him, then there was a plane crash. At first I thought it was his plane that crashed, but then I found out that it was a small plane and I needed to find Arizona," Meredith replies, obviously thinking this through for the first time.

"This turned out to be the day Derek died then?" he points out. "And you were already drawn to Arizona."

"But that's not why I was drawn to her, I didn't even know anything was wrong with Derek that morning. As far as I knew he was stuck in traffic in DC and that's why he missed his meeting," she counters.

"Okay, so it was just the shared trauma that made you need to know that she was alright?" he asks.

"Yeah, of course. And we were fine the rest of the day," Meredith replies.

"When did you find out about Derek?" he asks.

"That night when the police came to the house," she explains. "But this isn't about Derek's death. His death had nothing to do with me being attacked at the hospital."

"Okay, but here we are talking about it, so let's explore this a bit further," he prods gently.

"I don't need to talk about Derek's death with you," she says shutting down.

* * *

"Why are you all here in my house tonight?" Meredith asks looking around the room at Alex, Maggie and Callie.

"We're being supportive," Callie replies.

"This is fun, we're here to have fun," Maggie adds.

"I'm here because I can't go home, I don't even know why I even live there," Alex grumbles.

"This isn't fun and you're not supporting me, you're supporting each other, you don't even need me to be here, so I'm going to bed," Meredith replies and they all look at her for a minute, then resume talking.

"I'm serious," she interjects. "Callie, may if you were home, Penny would stop by and have sex with you. Maggie, I don't if DeLuca stays over, but you need to introduce him to the kids so there's not a stranger in their house. Alex for god's sake, fix things with Jo, she loves you, but you pissed her off. Now I need sleep, so I'm going to bed," she says standing up to leave the room.

"Meredith, where are you going?" Maggie asks confused.

"She's going to bed," Alex replies finishing his beer. "And so am I."

"Alex, where are you going?" Callie asks.

"What, there's an extra bedroom up here, I'm going to bed too," he says yawning.

"Do you think she's okay?" Maggie asks.

"Maybe she's just tired," Callie replies. "But maybe she's right, maybe Penny does go by my house and I'm over here, we both know she won't come here again, I should go too."

* * *

"God they all came over again tonight. Arizona at least when you lived here they stayed away. Please come back!" Meredith begs playfully.

"Not if the only reason you want me there is to keep your friends away," Arizona protests sarcastically.

"That would simply be a bonus," Meredith replies, "There are many other reasons that I want you here, you always wake up first and make coffee. You can get Ellis back to sleep a lot quicker than I can, which is annoying but I still appreciate it."

"Why don't you guys come over and stay here tonight?" Arizona suggests.

"Are you ready for us to do that?" Meredith asks.

"Yes, I told you the spare room is all set up for Ellis and Bailey and Zola sleeps on Sofia's trundle bed when she stays over so yeah, come over tonight and stay with us," Arizona says again. "I miss you," she adds.

"Okay, we'll be there and I can't wait to see you," Meredith replies. "I miss you too."


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: I thought the therapy sessions were choppy, out of order and just not edited well, so I fixed them!**_

 _ **To the folks worried about Ellen leaving, I encourage you to go on YouTube and watch any of her interviews, I think it's obvious that she's not going anywhere, she loves the show and will see it to the end. Sara is the only one up for renewal this year that I wonder about, maybe she's just got too much going on but lately on the show she looks exhausted, could be the lousy storyline though...**_

* * *

"Last night, I told them all to go fix their relationships and to stop spending all their time at my house. Tonight, I'm taking the kids and we're staying over at Arizona's." Meredith says to the therapist the next morning.

"You told them how to fix their relationships?" he asks.

"Yes, Maggie is sneaking around with DeLuca and she's always stressed out. I told her to get over it already and just tell people, specifically, she needs to introduce him to the kids so he's not a stranger in the house.

I told Callie that Penny probably wants to be with her, but she's never home. Then I reminded Alex that he pissed Jo off and just because she let him move back in, doesn't mean she forgives him. He needs to apologize and ask her to forgive him for being an insensitive ass, she obviously loves him." Meredith rants.

"So how did they take this information?" He asks.

"I don't know, I got up and went to bed," Meredith replies. "And it was wonderful, I took a bath and read my book. Ellis slept through the night, so I feel great today."

"Arizona invited you all over to stay the night at her house, have you done this before with or without the kids?" he asks.

"I've been to her place, but I haven't stayed overnight. The kids have though, when I was in the hospital she took them all home with her," Meredith replies as if she's considering this for the first time.

"Meredith?" he gently prods.

"I just really hadn't thought about it. Arizona took my three kids and Sofia overnight, not only was she working her full shifts at the hospital, she was taking on some of Alex's Peds cases and helping in General surgery, then on her days off she took the kids home with her. And then when I was released, she moved in and helped, she must be exhausted. No wonder she wanted to move back to her place." Meredith realizes.

"Meredith what are you feeling right now?" he prompts.

"I-I-I don't know," she stammers. "I don't think I realized how much Arizona had done for me. And we were new to each other, she really loves me. I thought that she was pushing me away and having second thoughts, but now, now I wonder if she's pushing me away because she's scared that I don't love her the way she loves me," Meredith replies, suddenly understanding the blonde's actions.

"Do you?" he asks. "Do you think if the situation was reversed, that you would do that for her?"

"Yes, of course," she replies.

* * *

"Meredith?" Arizona calls out when she enters the quiet house. Looking around, she sees a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table, a bottle of wine and a note. "We're at the park. We'll be home at 5:30. Relax, dinner's at 6. I've got this!"

Smiling, the blonde has to admit that she's relieved to have some downtime. Pouring herself a glass of wine, she heads into her bedroom, it's just now 5 o'clock so she has time to take a quick shower and change before they return from the park.

* * *

"Hey," Arizona says as she steps out of the bathroom and sees Meredith sitting on the bed.

"How was your day?" she asks as Arizona sits down on the bed beside her.

"It was good, but then I got home and it was much better," the blonde says leaning over to kiss her.

Returning the kiss,and deepening it, Meredith whispers, "The kids are exhausted and will be going to bed early tonight."

"That may be the hottest thing you've ever said to me," Arizona replies playfully.

"You are so beautiful Arizona," Meredith says looking at her and flushing with desire, "Uh, I'm going to go back out there and get dinner on, but this, this is not finished," she says suggestively.

* * *

"Momma, we're having a sleepover!" Sofia exclaims when Arizona enters the room.

"Isn't it exciting?" she asks her daughter.

"Meredith picked me and Zola up from school and then we got to play in the park all day," she replies excitedly.

"All day, huh?" Arizona asks looking over at Meredith.

"The nanny took them to the park so I could run errands and come over here and get everything ready for dinner," Meredith explains. "When she dropped them off the weather was still so nice, that we decided to go check out the park down the street before you got home."

"Well, that's a lot of play time, you guys must be starving!" Arizona teases the three kids.

"I could eat a horse!" Sofia exclaims.

"I could eat a buffalo!" Zola counters.

"I can eat a dinosaur!" Bailey adds.

"Well tonight you'll be eating chicken," Meredith replies to them, "Now all three of you go wash your hands and Zola, help your brother and don't leave a big mess, please," she adds.

"Is it my imagination or are the three of them getting along perfectly today," Arizona asks.

"Sofia is the perfect buffer between Zola and Bailey, she's figured out how to keep the peace, I didn't think an only child could learn to be a middle child so easily," Meredith remarks as she pulls dinner out of the oven.

"Did you already feed Ellis?" Arizona asks looking over at the baby on the floor entertaining herself.

"No, she's going to eat with us, I've started her on solid food this week, she's teething," Meredith explains.

Arizona goes over to pick up the baby, when Sofia swoops in to help, by slipping in behind the baby and sitting Ellis up on her lap.

Meredith watches from the kitchen and shakes her head, she hadn't really noticed how much Sofia helps Arizona with things, no wonder the child has adapted so easily, she's really in tune with Arizona, they make a good team.

"Dinner's ready guys, come sit down," Meredith calls out, worried about how long it's taking Zola and Bailey to wash their hands. She goes in to check on them.

"Zola, why is Bailey in the bathtub? You were just supposed to help him wash his hands," Meredith reminds her.

"Mom, he washed his hands and the water ran down his arms and then he was all muddy, so I told him to rinse off in the bathtub," she explains.

Meredith looks around the bathroom and sees the muddy footprints, "Thank you Zola for helping him, please go tell Arizona that you guys can start dinner without us," she instructs her daughter. Then turning to her son, she shakes her head, "Now Bailey boy, I'm going to turn on the shower and rinse you off, then you need to get dressed so we can eat, okay?"

Arizona has dinner under control with the girls by the time Meredith and Bailey join them, Ellis is picking through the macaroni and steamed vegetables but not really eating any of the chicken.

"I think she's going to be a vegetarian," Arizona teases.

"Bailey did the same thing when he was that age, he didn't eat meat until he had all his teeth," Meredith replies, bending down to kiss her daughter's head as she passes by to her spot at the table.

"Dinner is great, isn't it girls," Arizona prompts.

"Mom, can Sofia and I load the dishwasher tonight?" Zola asks.

"Uh, okay but why do you want to load the dishwasher here?" Meredith asks confused.

"Arizona's dishwasher is really cool," Zola explains going into detail on the differences between the one here and the one at their house.

"I'm sorry that I asked, but yes, the answer to that question Zola, will always be yes," Meredith says laughing and looking over at Arizona. "Note to self, upgrade the dishwasher at home," she jokes.

* * *

"Thank you for tonight, but when I invited you over, I didn't expect you to do everything," Arizona says after they finish putting the kids to bed.

Turning to the blonde, Meredith puts her arms around her, "In therapy today, I realized how much that you have done for me since I was in the hospital. I just wanted tonight to be easy for you, I've let you do more than your share, I'm better now and when I go back to work, we'll have to be better about balancing things between us. We are more than just co-parenting units, we're a couple, so we need to make sure that we take time to be a couple. In fact, I've already made arrangements for a sitter this weekend, will you have dinner with me Saturday night?" she asks.

"Are you asking me out on a date, Meredith Grey?" the blonde teases.

"I am and I have an overnight sitter, so maybe we can come back here afterward," she replies pushing Arizona back onto the bed.

"One date and you think I'm going to bring you back to my place, huh?" Arizona says playfully.

"I'll show you right now why you're going to bring me back to your place," Meredith says kissing her way down the blonde's neck and into her cleavage.

Slipping Meredith's shirt off, Arizona cups her breast and then asks, "Why do we need to go out?"

* * *

"Are you just getting in?" Callie asks when she enters the elevator mid morning to see Arizona with her coat and bag.

"Uh, yeah. Meredith and the kids stayed over last night," Arizona says feeling a bit awkward about it.

"Oh", Callie says automatically. Glancing over at her ex, she notices her embarrassment and then she realizes what she means. "Oh god, well have a good day," she says getting out of the elevator quickly.

Alex steps in and looks at the blonde, "I'd ask how your night was, but I bet it was better than mine," he grumbles.

"It was amazing, the kids spent the day at the park and they went to bed right after dinner," Arizona says smiling and blushing a little.

"Basically, you're saying that even with four kids in your house, you're having more sex than me," he replies frustratedly.

"Yep, you need to get it together dude," she teases.

* * *

Maggie and Callie are having lunch in the cafeteria when Alex plops down at their table.

"Okay, so how is it Meredith and Arizona have four kids between them and they have a better sex life than we do?" He asks.

"Alex, no. We are not talking about their sex life, that's my sister," Maggie reminds him.

"Uh, that's my ex-wife and my best friend, we're not talking about this," Callie says shoving his shoulder.

"I have a date with Penny tonight," Callie says brightly.

"Who cares," Alex grumbles. "I thought you were done with her?"

"I should be and if she cancels tonight, I will be," Callie says more to herself than to the others.

"I think Richard knows about Andrew," Maggie confesses.

"Everyone knows about you and DeLuca, you're not fooling anyone with your sly glances and early morning hookups," Callie replies, "We see it, we just don't care."

"Harsh. And it is a big deal. Meredith says I need to file a love contract with HR, we're not ready for that. Callie do you and Penny have one on file?" Maggie asks.

"Uh, no. We've barely been together since she came to work here actually," Callie points out.

"Wait a minute, you guys made me and Jo file one, so this isn't fair, you two are dating residents too," Alex retorts.

"You and Jo were living together and she was on your service, it was different," Callie counters.

"DeLuca is on Maggie's service and they practically live in that oncall room by her office," Alex replies smirking at her.

"Thanks Alex, you're really supportive," she replies sarcastically.

* * *

"Meredith, I have to admit, I feel really good about this," he replies smiling at her.

"You feel good?" she asks as a small smile plays across her face.

"I mean that I feel comfortable signing your papers. You show no signs of PTSD and you are certainly capable of taking care of your patients and yourself," he explains.

"But I feel terrible," she replies. "When I came in here I felt great, but now I don't know who I am or what I want."

"Meredith, when you first came in here you told me that you were happy to be a widow with three kids. You loved your work and you have good friends who support you," he reminds her.

She looks at him thoughtfully, so he continues.

"A widow is still married, she's just married to a dead guy. I think it's possible that being with Arizona, being happy with Arizona like you were with your husband, is what is confusing to you. Can you have this with her and still be true to him?" the doctor proposes to her.

"He's gone. I don't have to be true to him. I deserve to be happy and if it's with Arizona or someone else, I still deserve to have someone, I don't have to be a widow forever," she replies.

"You'll always be a widow, but it doesn't have to define you," he reminds her. "Meredith, in the past few weeks, you've told me time and again that you're really good at being alone, but from where I sit, you're not alone. Something terrible happened to you and your friends and family were there for you and they still are."

"Are you saying that I can't be alone anymore?" she asks.

"No, I'm confident that you can be alone again, I just don't think that you want to be," he points out.


	11. Chapter 11

_**AN: shaking things up a bit, but don't worry MerZona will be fine!**_

 _ **And to the guests who've asked and I cannot respond to directly- I have zero info about Olivia Munn or anyone else joining Grey's to be a love interest for Arizona. When I create OC's I sometimes model them after known actresses, like Olivia Munn and Jennifer Beals.**_

* * *

Arizona pulls her things out of her bag and a handwritten note falls out, it was tucked in between the two case files that she took home last night.

 _Pack an overnight bag, I'm picking you up at 4 pm on Saturday, we're staying at The Alexis and having dinner at Canlis._

Smiling, she folds the note and slips it into her desk.

"Uh, hey can you come and do a consult real quick?" Alex asks, stepping into her office.

"Yeah, what do you have?" Arizona asks turning towards him.

"It's a two month old with craniosynostosis," he replies.

"Do you have the fundoscopy and CAT scan reports yet?" Arizona asks.

"Yeah, that's why I want your opinion," he says looking uncomfortable.

"Okay," she hesitates, "Alex what do the reports show?"

He hands her the chart as she reviews the case, she realizes what he's thinking.

"I don't need to see this patient Alex, just send them to Seattle Med, this surgery should be done by a craniofacial surgeon," she replies.

"That's the thing," he begins, "Dr Borden is on maternity leave, she won't be back for three months. I don't think they should wait for her to return."

"Doesn't Seattle Med have someone covering Borden's service?" Arizona asks still confused why Alex hasn't referred the case.

"They do, but it's Boswell," he finally blurts out.

"Wait, what? Lauren Boswell is in Seattle?" Arizona asks.

"Yeah, so I checked and Bailey has already granted her privileges here, if I send the referral she might decide to take the case here, so I just wanted to give you a heads up," he admits.

Stunned, Arizona sits for a moment, unable to comprehend having Lauren back in the hospital. "Give me a few minutes," she finally replies.

* * *

"Chief, I need a moment," Arizona says stepping into her office.

"Okay," Bailey replies, "Shut the door."

Arizona shuts the door but stands there a moment, composing her thoughts.

Bailey sits trying to think of what she could have done to piss off her Chief of Pediatrics and Fetal Medicine.

"Did you know that Dr Borden from Seattle Med is on maternity leave and you granted her replacement privileges here?" Arizona asks rapidly.

"Yes, that's standard protocol, why is that an issue?" Bailey asks.

"Her replacement is Lauren Boswell, Miranda. You've given Lauren Boswell privileges here without telling me!" she says angrily.

"Is she here in the hospital now?" Bailey asks.

"No, but Alex is about to refer a case to her and if she decides to take it here... well, someone should probably tell Calliope because it won't be me," Arizona explains before jerking the door back open and leaving the office.

Bailey sits at her desk a bit stunned by the information. Closing her mouth, she picks up her phone, "Mary, would you page Dr Torres to come to my office? Thank you."

* * *

Arizona darts into the stairwell, she just needs a minute to think this through. Would Lauren really come back to this hospital after everything that happened? Should Arizona just call her and face this situation head on?

Returning to her unit, she spots Jackson and Alex talking at the nurses' station. "Dr Robbins, may I have a moment?" Jackson asks when she approaches.

"Let's go to my office," Arizona says glancing around nervously.

Alex and Jackson follow her into her office and Arizona nods at Alex to close the door. "Is this about your new case?" she asks Alex.

"Yeah, I decided to consult with Avery and he agrees, the kid can't wait for Borden to get back, so he's going to refer them to Boswell," Alex replies.

"Look Arizona, I know that this isn't ideal, but she's an amazing surgeon and I am going to ask her to perform the procedure here, so Alex and I can scrub in on it with her," Jackson explains. "I'll be her main contact instead of Alex."

"You've already contacted her haven't you?" Arizona isn't really asking, she can tell from his body language that he has. "When is she going to be here?"

"In an hour," Jackson replies.

Arizona's pager goes off, "911 to the pit, I've got to go, just keep her away from me, got it?" she glares at them both.

* * *

Scrubbing out of an emergency placental abruption, Arizona hears the door open behind her and assumes it's Dr Dillon, the OB surgeon who assisted on the case, she turns around to ask her a question, but it's Lauren Boswell.

"Hey," she says standing with her back to the door.

Arizona takes a cloth and dries her hands off, "We're not doing this. I have nothing to say to you," she replies, her voice flat and unemotional.

"I never got to apologize for what happened," Lauren replies nervously. "I'm sorry. I was selfish and I shouldn't have pursued you."

"Okay, is that it?" Arizona asks impatiently.

"Yeah," Lauren says turning to leave.

Arizona takes a deep breath and then exits the scrub room, then stops dead in her tracks.

Callie and Meredith and Lauren are all standing in the hall outside of her OR.

"Fuck my life," Arizona swears under her breath.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?" Callie asks the blonde surgeon.

"Scheduling surgery, I'm consulting on a case with Dr Avery and Dr Karev," Lauren replies standing her ground.

Meredith looks from Callie to Lauren and then over to Arizona, before walking away from the whole situation.

Arizona follows her, "Meredith, let me explain," she says catching up to her.

"Is there any reason that I should be concerned that she's here?" Meredith asks turning around abruptly to face the blonde.

"No," Arizona replies quickly.

"Okay, then I'm going back to the skills lab to prepare for my class on Monday," she says sharply.

"I just found out this morning that she was in Seattle, then I was paged to surgery right after Jackson told me that he consulted her," Arizona says stepping in closer to her.

"Arizona, I have to admit that I'm just a little freaked out right now. You've slept with both of those women," she replies pointing down the hall.

"And I'm with you, I love you," Arizona says reaching out to brush her hair out of her eyes, before leaning in to kiss her lightly on the lips. "I have to check on my patient, but if you want to talk about this later, I'll come see you in the lab," she offers.

"Are you on that case with her?" Meredith asks.

"No, it's Karev and Avery's case," Arizona replies.

"I'll be in the lab the rest of the day," Meredith says before leaning in and kissing the blonde.

* * *

Stopping by the cafeteria to grab a lunch, Arizona runs into Callie.

"You could have given me a heads up," Callie says angrily. First Bailey tells me she has privileges here and then an hour later I run into her when I go to schedule a surgery."

"I was paged to surgery right after I found out that Avery consulted her on the case," Arizona explains.

"Just stay away from her Arizona, don't screw things up with Meredith. She wasn't worth it last time, she won't be worth it this time either," Callie points out before storming off.

"What was that about?" April asks walking up to the blonde.

"Lauren Boswell is here consulting with Jackson and Alex on a case," Arizona replies biting her lip nervously.

"Lauren Boswell the woman who you..." April stops talking as Arizona nods yes. "Wowza, that's... uh, are you okay? Does Meredith know she's here?" "Are you going to talk to her?" April asks rapidly.

"She already talked to me... to apologize," Arizona explains. "I didn't really have anything to say to her, but when she walked out of my scrub room, Meredith and Callie were standing at the scheduling desk."

"I'm so sorry that must have been terrible for you," April says putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I'm fine, I'm just worried about Meredith, everything is going really well with us right now," Arizona replies.

* * *

Arizona steps out of the elevator and carefully looks around the hall, seeing it is empty, she walks quickly to her office and slips inside, shutting the door behind her.

Finishing her charting, she looks over at her phone to see a text from Alex, "where r u?" he asks.

"my office," she replies back.

"Hey, so we scheduled that surgery for Tuesday morning," he says entering her office.

"Shut the door, I don't want anyone to know I'm in here," Arizona says quickly.

"She's gone, look I'm sorry about that. I thought if I consulted Jackson, he'd maybe be able to do it without calling her, but apparently he was looking for a opportunity to work with her again," Karev explains.

"Alex, she's a great surgeon. Don't pass up the opportunity to work with her, you'll learn a lot," Arizona says encouragingly.

"I already have," he admits. "So I heard she ran into Torres at the scheduling desk."

"She cornered me after my surgery to apologize, then I walk out of the scrub room and she's standing there with Meredith and Callie," Arizona replies. "It was bad, Callie is pissed. Meredith is worried. I have to fix this Alex and I don't know how."

"Want me to talk to Meredith?" he asks.

"No, don't then she might think that she should worry about this," Arizona points out.

"She doesn't need to worry, right? I mean you're not interested in Boswell," he asks.

"Alex, she is nothing to me but a mistake from my past, that I have no interest in repeating," Arizona replies.

* * *

"You're not worried about this?" Callie asks.

Turning around to face the brunette, Meredith sighs. "Concerned yes, I'd have to be crazy not to be concerned. But I have to trust Arizona. She said there's nothing between them now and that she didn't even know Boswell was in Seattle until this morning," Meredith replies.

"And you believe her?" Callie asks.

"I have no reason not to believe her, you know as well as I do that she's a terrible liar," Meredith points out, getting annoyed with the brunette. "My relationship with Arizona has nothing to do with yours."

"You're right. I'm sorry, this is really just my issue with her, I shouldn't try to make it yours," Callie admits "I just, well Penny didn't show up last night, again. She said that she was in surgery with Hunt, but I'm pretty sure that she's lying."

"Callie, I can't do this with you, I can't be this person for you, not for this," Meredith says impatiently.

"Right, sorry. I'll just go then," Callie says turning to leave.


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: Happy Saturday people! Hoping to get another chapter for you tomorrow, but it could be Monday evening, just depends on how it goes at work. The weather is gorgeous here, which usually means extra work for me.**_

* * *

"I loved finding your note this morning," Arizona says entering the lab and moving to greet Meredith with a kiss.

Smiling at her, Meredith leans in and kisses her, "I was worried that you hadn't found it," she admits.

"I found it before my day went to hell," Arizona replies, slipping an arm around her. "I hope that you know I had no idea that seeing her today was even a possibility or I would have warned you."

"Arizona I believe you, it's okay," Meredith says wrapping her arms around the blonde to reassure her. "But Callie is going to be harder to convince," she points out.

"I'm not worried about what Callie thinks, only what you think," Arizona counters.

"I think we need to hire our own Craniofacial surgeon, then we avoid this whole situation ever happening again," Meredith jokes.

"Meredith, i need you to understand that seeing her today had no effect on me. What happened with her that night, was more about the horrible place that I was in with Callie after the amputation, the miscarriage and then the lawsuit." Arizona explains.

"Arizona, I get it. Derek and I were in a similar place when he was in DC. We weren't taking care of us. And one night I called his phone and a woman answered it and I just knew that he was going to cheat on me. But because I happened to call and interrupt them in his lab, he flew home to see me. But the reality is that we're surgeons and we have four kids between us, this won't be easy," Meredith says stepping back and looking at her honestly.

"I've never had easy," Arizona replies. "Look at us, we probably wouldn't know what to do with easy," she quips.

* * *

"Uh, hey can we talk?" Callie asks entering her office at the end of the day.

"I'm not discussing Boswell, her being here has nothing to do with me," Arizona replies sharply.

"I know that, but..." Callie begins.

"No, Callie you don't get to come in here and say something to me about this," Arizona replies getting up from her desk and walking over to the brunette. "What happened between her and me, doesn't have anything to do with my life now. You have such little faith in me that I'm sure you'd be shocked to know that this isn't the first time that she's been back in Seattle and reached out to me."

"Wait, what are you saying, that you dated her after we broke up?" Callie asks incredulously.

"No Callie, but my point is that I could have and I didn't. Lauren Boswell has no hold on me and if you've come here to lecture me about my past failings, it's not your place," Arizona replies strongly.

* * *

Walking down the stairs on her way back to her office, Callie runs into Penny.

"Hey," Penny says nervously.

"Not right now, my day is shitty enough without your empty promises," Callie says tiredly.

"I'm really sorry about this week, Callie you deserve much more than what I can give right now," Penny replies apologetically.

"Damn right," Callie exclaims moving past the resident.

* * *

"Hey how was your weekend?" April asks Arizona Monday morning.

"Pretty awesome, Meredith and I had a wonderfully romantic date on Saturday. How was yours?"

"It was okay, Jackson and I are still not quite connecting, except when we have sex," she admits uncomfortably.

"Didn't your therapist warn you about having sex during therapy?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, but..." April begins.

"There's a reason that they tell you that, it's too confusing. Just be careful April, Callie and I weren't and look where it got us," Arizona points out.

"Hey good morning!" Callie says approaching the two surgeons.

"Morning Callie," April says glancing over at her a little nervously, she knows that Jackson talks to Callie about her.

"How was your big date with Meredith?" Callie asks the blonde.

"It was awesome," Arizona says smiling at her. "Thanks for asking."

"I'm happy for you two," Callie admits honestly. "And now I'm happy for me. I finally broke it off with Penny for good. It feels like a weight is off my shoulders, I feel lighter and really focused. I'm headed to my lab for the day." She says stepping in to take her coffee from the barista.

* * *

"Good morning Dr Grey," Arizona says walking into the lab to see Meredith before her class.

"Mmm, coffee. Maybe you do love me," Meredith teases.

"I most certainly love you and I'm not afraid to show how much," Arizona says stepping in close to kiss her.

Returning the kiss, Meredith places both her hands on the blonde's lapels, "Uh, you should go before my students get here, I have a reputation to uphold and kissing you in front of them will definitely tarnish it," she teases.

"Hmm, I should go I have a meeting with Bailey before I start rounds," Arizona replies stealing one more kiss before she leaves.

"Uh Dr Robbins?"

Arizona stops and turns around, not recognizing the voice at first.

"Dr Robbins, I'm sorry. Chief Bailey insists that we rotate through all specialties," she says looking down, her face a little flushed. "I just wanted you to know that I didn't request the rotation, but I am looking forward to it. I've heard that you're an excellent teacher."

"I see," Arizona replies, her brain trying to process the information, while she wills her face not to react. "I'll see you later then."

* * *

"It's just for two weeks, she'll start with you and then go on to Karev," Bailey explains. "I can't keep her in general indefinitely."

"A bit of a heads up would have been nice Miranda," Arizona replies annoyance in her voice.

"I'm telling you now," Bailey replies, "And I only just told them before their class."

"Well, I just ran into before her class and she told me first," Arizona explains.

"Well what were you doing down there?" Bailey asks, "Oh nevermind, I can guess."

"I just took Meredith some coffee," Arizona replies. "But Bailey I thought that we agreed that Fetal medicine is no place for third year residents."

"Arizona, it's a rotation not a fellowship, I don't expect you to let her scrub in on a valvuloplasty, but there are many other more common cases that she should learn about. You and Karev have her for the next four weeks, so figure it out." Bailey grumbles.

* * *

"Blake?" Alex asks. "We have to teach her?"

"Yes, Alex. She's a resident at this hospital and she's going to be doing a rotation with us, so let's plan on meeting later to figure out how we want to work it. We have her for four weeks." Arizona explains.

"Uh, hey Jackson asked me to consult on the Kenner case," Callie says as she approaches them.

"Seriously? This day just keeps getting better," Alex grumbles, handing her the chart.

"Wait, this is the craniosynostosis case?" Callie asks as she scans the chart.

"Yes, have you seen their approach? I think Jackson wants your opinion on split cranial bone graft that Boswell is proposing," Arizona explains.

"I'll need to review these scans, but the Split Graft approach is what I would recommend," Callie replies. "I don't see a neuro consult here though."

"There's no evidence of neuro deficits," Alex points out.

"Intracranial pressure is difficult to measure in a two month old, I would consult neuro just to be safe," Callie points out.

"Chelsea, would you page neuro on the Kenner case?" Arizona asks the nurse at the desk.

"Yes, Dr Robbins," she replies.

"When is your case review?" Callie asks Alex.

"This afternoon at 2 pm and the procedure is scheduled at 9 am tomorrow," he adds.

"Okay, well I'll sit in on the review. This is a solid approach though, Dr Boswell is quite thorough."

* * *

"Dr Avery, contrary to popular opinion, the cranium can be split in children younger than 3 years old. The split allows for greater flexibility in the cortex and will allow us to create the space needed for the child to continue to grow without the need for additional surgeries," Dr Boswell explains.

"And you're not concerned about the lack of diploic space?" Jackson asks.

"She doesn't have to be, that's a common misperception and hasn't been proven to be direct result of this procedure," Callie interjects.

"Uh, yes that is true, and thank you Dr Torres for pointing that out," Lauren replies, quite surprised that the Ortho would be aware of that study.

They finish the review and afterward, Lauren approaches Callie, "Do you prepare for all of your consults this thoroughly?" she asks.

"Dr Boswell, I'm on the board of this hospital and when the Chairman asks me for a consult, I take it quite seriously. Your work is impressive, but I am still not a fan of yours. I'll be observing from the gallery tomorrow." Callie says before walking away from her.

* * *

"Do you have time for a drink after work?" Samantha asks Arizona that afternoon.

"Oh hey, I do. How has it been going?" Arizona asks as they walk towards the elevator.

"Good, I'm wrapping things up with Dr Grey this week. I just took a position over at Seattle Med though," Sam explains.

"So you're not moving back to Portland?" Arizona asks as they step into the elevator.

"No, I uh, met someone and I'm going to give Seattle another try," Sam explains.

"You met someone here at this hospital?" Arizona asks surprised that she's not heard any rumors.

"Yeah, but don't worry. I took your advice and we kept it out of the hospital," Sam replies as the elevator doors open.

"So Joe's at six?" Arizona asks before stepping out of the elevator.

"Joe's at six," Sam confirms.

* * *

"Are you heading out?" Arizona asks glancing up to see her girlfriend approaching.

"I am, how is everything going?" Meredith asks.

"Alex and I just met and worked out a rotation for Blake, we're going to alternate weeks depending on our case loads, but she should get a good mix of cases that way." Arizona explains.

"I'm sorry that Bailey just dumped her on you, I told her that I would take her back on my service," Meredith replies.

"She's been on General and Trauma for months, it's time for them to rotate her through the other specialities. And it's not like she'll be going through neuro," Arizona points out.

"Yeah, no kidding," Meredith admits. "What are you doing tonight? I think you should come over later, so we can finish what we started at lunch."

"Hmm, very tempting. But I just made plans to meet Sam after work, I guess that she's decided to stay in Seattle," Arizona replies, "She met someone here."

"Seriously?" Meredith asks.

"Yeah, why? Do you know who's she's seeing?" Arizona asks. Then she takes Meredith's hand and leads her into her office.

"Yes and so do you," Meredith replies. "It's Blake, I saw them coming in together this morning."

"Oh god, do you think Callie knows yet?" Arizona asks. "I don't think she does or she would have said something to me earlier."

"Oh right, I heard Jackson pulled her in on the Kenner case with Boswell today, how did that go?" Meredith asks.

"Alex said it went well. The surgery is tomorrow morning at 9 am," Arizona replies.

"Are you going to observe or assist?" Meredith asks carefully.

"I'm going to observe, Alex and Blake are going to assist," Arizona explains. "He's reviewing the case with her now."

"Well that's a good case for her to see," Meredith comments. "So about tonight?" she asks moving in closer to the blonde.

Arizona wraps her arms around her and kisses her, "I could be persuaded to stop by later," she teases.

"Hmm, how can I persuade you?" Meredith asks leaning in and kissing the blonde's neck, sending tremors down both of their bodies.

"That's pretty persuasive," Arizona says, desire flashing across her face.

"Good," Meredith winks. "Then I'll see you later?" she asks.

Nodding yes, Arizona follows her to the door and presses their bodies together, kissing her goodbye again.

"You're making it very difficult for me to leave your office," Meredith points out, her eyes twinkling mischievously.


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N: This chapter has been reworked and reposted.**_

* * *

"Dr Torres, may I have a moment?" Lauren approaches her early the next morning.

"Are you always this early for your procedures, Dr Boswell?" Callie asks.

"I am when I have concerns about it. I would like you to reconsider and scrub in on this procedure," she replies. "Doctors Karev and Avery have limited experience with the cranial reconstruction and I think it's best for the patient to have another specialist in there to assist."

"I haven't performed a cranial reconstruction," Callie points out.

"Dr Torres, I looked you up and you trained with Dr Marvin Steadham in Miami, he was on the team that pioneered this technique," Lauren counters. "Are you going to tell me that you've never seen this done?"

"Yes, I've seen it done," Callie replies, more than a little surprised that Boswell is this eager to get her onto the surgery team. "Okay, I'll scrub in, but only if we can review it together first."

* * *

"Are you guys ready?" Arizona asks as she approaches Jackson and Alex standing in front of the scheduling desk.

They look at her nervously and then she notices that they're staring into the conference room.

"What's going on in there?" she asks as she realizes that Callie and Lauren are alone in the room and not killing each other.

"Torres' name is on the board now, so it appears that they're reviewing the procedure because she's agreed to be on the surgical team." Jackson points out.

"Is Callie smiling?" Arizona asks trying not to stare at them, but confused just the same.

"Uh, yeah they've been doing that a lot. So this is weird right?" Jackson asks looking at the blonde.

"Jackson, Calliope is a professional above everything else, so it's not that weird that she would... is she flirting with her?" Arizona exclaims hitting Alex in the shoulder.

"Ow, it's not my fault that your ex-mistress and ex-wife are hitting on each other," he grumbles.

"What's going on?" Meredith asks joining them in the hallway and then following their line of sight she adds, "Oh."

"How long have they been in there, shouldn't one of you go in and..." Meredith's voice trails off, "Uh, wait, what's going on in there?" she asks, her eyebrows raised in concern as she observes Callie being more than cordial to the other surgeon.

"They're reviewing the case," Alex replies. "Like two normal professionals," he adds.

"I think I walked into a parallel universe or something," Arizona quips, unable to stop watching the two women. "Callie has been more than civil, she even smiled at her."

"Have any of you seen Dr Torres?" Jo asks walking up to the group.

"She's meeting with Boswell," Jackson replies nodding towards the door.

Jo turns her head quickly and then her mouth falls open. "What's going on? She hates her, why haven't you guys gone in there? Jo asks, before opening the door.

Both surgeons look up at the resident, questioning the interruption.

"Dr Torres, I have your schedule for the day and we're late for rounds," Jo explains, handing her the tablet.

"Uh, Dr Wilson, I need you to cover rounds and push the ACL repair back one hour, I'm going to assist Dr Boswell on the craniosynostosis procedure this morning, " Callie says handing the tablet back to the resident.

"Uh, you are? I mean of course, Dr Torres," Jo replies trying to hide her confusion at the abrupt change of attitude towards the blonde surgeon.

* * *

"Did that really just happen?" Meredith jokes as they enter her office.

"I know that there's most likely nothing to it, but that was downright odd to see those two talking calmly and professionally, " Arizona remarks.

"Well if I know Callie, she will remember who she is before she falls into an on-call room with her," Meredith asks leaning on her desk. "Uh sorry," she says seeing the hurt on Arizona's face at the comment.

"You know that night was my own personal perfect storm?" Arizona asks sincerely.

"It was mine too, Arizona I almost bled out after a c section," Meredith reminds her.

"If only I had been in your OR instead of that oncall room," Arizona remarks.

"But then you and Callie would still be together," Meredith points out.

I'm not so sure about that, things were not good with us before that night," Arizona replies.

"Well you know what they say? Everything happens for a reason," Meredith remarks, "maybe this is the reason?"

"Do you really believe that?" Arizona asks.

"It helps to believe it," Meredith admits

Arizona steps up to the desk, placing a hand on either side of Meredith before leaning in to kiss her.

Meredith responds by wrapping her arms around the blonde and returning the kiss.

"Dr Grey?" Blake knocks on the open office door. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Dr Karev asked me to find Dr Robbins."

"Hmm, I'll see you later Dr Grey," Arizona sighs before kissing her one more time, then winking at her as she leaves.

* * *

"Dr Robbins, I'd just like to say that I hope my seeing Dr Stewart won't make things more awkward between us," Blake remarks.

"Look Dr Blake, we both know that this stuff happens all the time in our community," Arizona says sharply, "And the awkwardness between us was there before you hooked up with my other ex."

"Dr Robbins, I'd just like to point out that I didn't even know you when I met Callie and then Sam and I, well she didn't tell me about the two of you until after we had already gotten together," Penny explains.

"Dr Blake. I think that it would be best if we do not discuss our personal lives," Arizona says narrowing her eyes at the resident, hoping to shut down the discussion.

"Okay," Penny replies nodding her head in silent agreement.

* * *

"Absolutely not," Arizona replies. "That is a really bad idea Alex."

"It was your idea to have her in on this procedure," Alex reminds her.

"That was before Callie decided to scrub in. I'll take her on my procedure at 10," Arizona replies firmly, before walking away. "Dr Blake, you're with me today. It's time for rounds," she calls out to the resident as she heads down the hall.

"You're taking me off the Kenner case?" Penny asks.

"Dr Blake, what do you know about placental abruption?" Arizona asks ignoring the resident's question.

"Placental abruption occurs when the placenta is separated from the uterine wall, typically caused by a trauma of some sort that impacts the womb. Most common cases are falls and seat belts during car accidents." Blake recites from memory.

"Go on," Arizona says pausing to wait for the resident to continue.

"Symptoms include vaginal bleeding, rapid contractions, uterine tenderness, abdominal pain and rapid fetal heart rate," she adds. "Diagnosis is usually confirmed by ultrasound and/or fetal EKG."

"And what are the differences between placenta previa and placenta abruption?" Arizona asks the resident.

"In placenta previa the placenta either partially or completely covers the cervix making a vaginal birth impossible or highly dangerous. The abruption could occur weeks or even months before delivery." Blake recites again from memory.

"Good to see that you've prepared for this rotation Dr Blake," Arizona remarks before entering the first patient's room.

* * *

"Where's your resident?" Callie asks when Alex enters the scrub room alone.

"She's with Robbins today, it's, uh going to be pretty crowded in there," he says nodding to the OR.

"She didn't have to do that, I can tolerate being in the same OR with Blake," Callie replies impatiently.

"It's a two month old Torres, there's already four of us in there," he points out. "And she can observe from the gallery like everyone else."

"Fine," Callie says, secretly she's relieved not to have her in there, she just doesn't want to admit it to anyone.

A few minutes later, Callie and Alex join Jackson and Lauren in the OR and the procedure begins.

"What did I miss?" April asks sitting down beside Meredith in the gallery.

"Nothing, they just started," Meredith replies.

"Is that Dr Torres?" April asks, concerned.

"Yeah, Boswell talked her into scrubbing in this morning," Meredith explains.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see them in the same room together, much less the same OR," April remarks.

"Did I miss anything?" Arizona asks entering the gallery and sitting down beside April.

"No they just started," April replies looking over at Arizona and then making a questioning face when she see's Blake beside her.

Arizona shrugs and then make's April trade her seats.

"Is she on your service?" April whispers, leaning in close so the resident can't hear her.

"Yes, don't make a big deal out of it," Arizona replies to her friend.

* * *

"That was really amazing Dr Boswell, thank you for including me on the surgical team," Callie gushes as they enter the scrub room.

"The pleasure was all mine, Dr Torres. You have amazing hands, I knew that you would be the perfect choice to help split the cranial bone," Lauren replies, reaching out to touch and admire Callie's hands.

Nervously, Callie begins to stammer, "Uh, oh, well thanks," she replies awkwardly.

"We should celebrate later with a drink," Lauren suggests as she releases the strong brown hands and turns to the sink to begin scrubbing out.

"Uh, maybe," Callie stammers again, turning to her own sink to begin scrubbing out.

The two women stand silently at the sink for a few minutes, before Lauren turns to her, "I'll see you later Dr Torres."

"Okay, yeah," Callie says watching her leave.

"Hey, did Boswell leave already?" Alex asks entering the scrub room.

"She just left, is he ready to go to recovery?" Callie asks drying her hands.

"Yeah, Avery just finished up closing," Alex replies.

"Oh, then I can take him up," Callie offers.

"You're offering?" he asks surprised, unable to remember the last time she took her own patient to recovery.

"Yes, I'll meet you up there," she replies flashing him a smile. "This was kind of fun."

"I'd love to work with her more often," Jackson remarks as he takes Callie's place at the other sink.

"Boswell? She's alright," Alex comments.

"She has this way of making you feel like you can do anything, it's incredible, we should recruit her to teach here," he remarks.

"You're crazy. She can't work here with Robbins and Torres!" Alex reminds him.

"Torres seems to be over it," Jackson counters.

"I'd wait and see how this plays out before offering her a job," Alex suggests.

* * *

"Shepherd, I'm crazy right?" Callie has cornered Amelia in her office to discuss her growing attraction to Lauren Boswell.

"No, I get it, she's hot and charismatic," Amelia admits. "Not to mention she has a way of looking at you that makes you think she's imagining you naked," she adds.

Callie looks at the brunette shocked by her admission.

"What just because I'm straight doesn't mean I don't notice these things," Amelia explains.

"This is so confusing, I hate her for sleeping with Arizona, yet I'm attracted to her and can't stop thinking about her," Callie admits.

"There's nothing wrong with letting her scratch that itch.

"You sound like Mark," Callie points out.

"If he was here, he'd tell you the same thing," Amelia remarks.

* * *

"Arizona this isn't a lesbian thing, this is just a hospital thing," Meredith replies as they sit in her office eating lunch.

"Blake starts with Callie and then goes to Sam. Lauren starts with me and now goes to Callie, this is so twisted," Arizona remarks.

"Look, when we were residents, George was with Izzie and Lexie and married Callie. And I slept with him once, don't ask," she says holding her hand up to stop the blonde from asking. "Alex was with Lexie, married Izzie and had sex with Callie. Want me to continue?" Meredith asks.

"Okay, okay, I get your point. Wait, so now I've been with two of the same women as George?" Arizona asks scrunching up her face. "Please tell me you've never been with Alex?"

"I've never been with Alex, he's like a brother to me," Meredith explains.

"What about Mark?" Arizona asks. "Did you and Mark ever...?"

"No, he tried but no. I would never do that to Derek," she replies.

Relieved Arizona reaches over and takes her hand, "I really don't care if Callie and Lauren hook up, you know that right?" she asks.

"Arizona I understand that it's weird, but you're sure that you're not jealous?" Meredith asks hesitantly.

"I'm not jealous of either of them, now if Lauren looked at you the way she looked at Callie earlier," Arizona says leaning in, "That would make me jealous, insanely jealous," she says about to kiss her.

"Dr Robbins?" Penny knocks on the closed office door.

"Her timing is amazing," Arizona remarks sitting back in her seat before responding, "Yes Dr Blake."

"The labs are back on Peters," she says through the door.

"I'll be right there," Arizona calls out. "This is going to be a long few weeks," Arizona groans, before kissing Meredith and slipping out the door.


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N:**_ _ **Thank you to the 200 readers who follow me and are open to my pairings, I appreciate your feedback and am thrilled that you enjoy my stories. I would write without you, but it's more fun to write with you.**_

* * *

"No", Callie replies emphatically.

"Craniofacial surgery is almost as new as Fetal surgery for Sloan-Grey to have fellowships in both would rocket us back into the top ten of teaching hospitals," Jackson says hoping to make his case to the other surgeon and fellow board member. "Are you really going to let your personal issues adversely impact your investment in this hospital?"

"My personal issues?" Callie storms across the office, "Are you seriously referring to hiring the woman who slept with my wife and ruined my marriage 'a personal' issue?" she asks glaring at him furiously for a full minute.

"I can't even right now," Callie replies angrily, her hand flying to her head, as she turns her back to him.

"The two of you operated together today and it was fantastic. I was there Torres, the two of you together would elevate our program, we need her," Jackson points out.

"No," she repeats. "In fact, hell no. Have you mentioned this to-to anyone else, or even just Arizona?" Callie asks.

"I haven't. I thought I'd try you first, since it seemed like..." his voice trails off.

"Jackson, I was being professional and yes, I may have gotten caught up in the excitement of the case, but there's no way in hell, I'm going to let you bring her on staff at this hospital," Callie replies crossing her arms and seething at him. "That is not going to happen."

* * *

"What's the AFI level?" Arizona asks as they enter the elevator.

"It's 15 now, the first one was 18," Penny replies looking up from the tablet.

"I'll stay and update her husband, you go prep her for surgery," Arizona says when the elevator opens.

"Yes Dr Robbins," Penny says following the blonde off the elevator.

Thirty minutes later, they're in the OR and it's not going well. Arizona doesn't understand, Blake was confident and prepared during the case review and now she's barely at the table assisting on the procedure. "Can someone please page Dr Pierce?" Arizona asks loudly.

"Dr Robbins, if you could just tell me how to assist you..." Penny begins to step up.

"Nothing Dr Blake, I need cardio in here immediately," Arizona says annoyed that the resident is showing zero initiative in the OR and probably hasn't even spotted the aneurysm in the abdominal aorta.

"Dr Robbins, Dr Riggs is available," the tech says from the phone.

"Fine, get him in here STAT!" Arizona says, worried about the bulge in the abdominal aorta, she didn't expect the repair to take this long since the fluid leak was so slow.

"What do you have Dr Robbins?" Riggs asks entering the OR in record time.

"I'm repairing a placental rupture, but there's an aneurysm in the abdominal aorta," she explains.

"Got it," he says quickly moving into position.

The two surgeons work efficiently and effectively together, which surprises Arizona, she didn't realize that Riggs had any fetal experience. As they get everything under control and relax a bit, they begin to chat and it's not until she's halfway through the close that Arizona remembers that the resident is there.

"Dr Blake, would you take our patient up to recovery and I'll go update Mr Peters?" Arizona asks. Then turning to the other surgeon, she add, "Dr Riggs, thank you for stepping in on short notice."

"My pleasure Dr Robbins, Dr Pierce speaks highly of you and now I see why," he replies, "Asking for help before you need it and putting the patient first, not exactly typical of a surgeon of your caliber."

"I shouldn't have entered that OR with an unproven resident, I put my patient at risk," she replies angry at herself.

"Dr Blake is gunshy, Dr Robbins. She's had Dr Hunt barking at her for over a month, he hasn't taken any time with her, she's barely been in an OR. Hunt was actually worse than Grey for her," Riggs replies.

"She froze in there, she stepped away from the table," Arizona points out.

"No one here wants to teach her, she needs to transfer out to another hospital or she'll fail her third year," he counters, "she's terribly behind as it is."

* * *

Heading to her office after making sure that Blake is all set to monitor her patients for the night, Arizona inwardly groans when she spots Lauren at the nurses' desk.

"Dr Robbins," Lauren says turning to face the blonde.

"Yes, Dr Boswell. I understand your procedure went well today, so I'm surprised to see you here so late in the day," Arizona replies cordially.

"I just stopped in to check on the Kenner case," she explains. "Uh, do you have a minute?"

"I don't actually. I'm late to meet someone," Arizona replies as she unlocks her office.

"Raincheck?" Lauren asks leaning in the doorway.

"Arizona, are you ready?" Callie asks pushing past Lauren into the blonde's office, then turning around, she asks, "Oh Dr Boswell did you need something?"

"Uh, no I was just checking on the Kenner case," Lauren says standing up and putting her hands in her lab coat.

Callie walks over to get Arizona's jacket off the back of the door and she holds it out.

Arizona looks at the brunette confused for a moment, then she slips off her lab coat and into the jacket.

"Okay, well we're late, so have a good night Dr Boswell," Arizona says shutting the door and following Callie down the hall to the elevator.

Once inside the elevator Callie looks over at her and Arizona begins laughing. "That wasn't necessary, but thanks," she says smiling at the brunette.

"Sorry, I was coming up to check on the Kenner case and I heard you telling her that you were running late to meet someone, so I improvised," Callie says smiling broadly.

"I assumed that she was here to run into you, not me," Arizona replies carefully.

"Uh, no. She's charming as hell and her flattery is almost addictive, but no thanks," Callie says firmly.

"I reviewed the Kenner case, she was smart to add you to the case this morning," Arizona points out.

"Jackson would have been fine in there, they didn't really need me. But it was pretty amazing to scrub in on it," Callie admits.

"Speaking of Jackson, Alex is under the impression that he wants to add a craniofacial surgeon to our roster," Arizona remarks.

"He is and Boswell is available next month. I, uh, I told him that I would lobby against her. I don't think she's a good fit here," Callie replies carefully.

"I have to agree," Arizona says as her phone buzzes in her pocket. She checks the message from Meredith and then turns to her ex. "I'm sorry about you and Penny," she says unsure if Callie knows that Blake has already hooked up with Samantha.

"It's fine, it had been over for a while and I was just clinging to it so I wouldn't be alone, pathetic, huh?" she remarks.

"You're not pathetic Calliope," Arizona says reaching out to hug her lightly as the elevator doors open.

"Thanks Arizona, have a great night and tell Meredith that I miss her," Callie replies stepping back into the elevator.

* * *

"Now that Penny is dating someone else, don't you think it's time for you and Callie to go back to being friends?" Arizona asks Meredith over dinner.

"I'm just waiting for her to apologize for interfering with my resident program, she was completely unprofessional, I'm Chief of General Surgery now. She needs to respect that and if she has a problem, she shouldn't air it out in the hallways of this hospital," Meredith explains.

"Valid point. I'll say something to her about that," Arizona replies going back to her meal.

"It's not your place to fix this Arizona. She's a grown woman, she should be able to figure this out on her own," Meredith remarks.

"She doesn't know about Sam and Penny yet, so I just thought it would help if the two of you were on better terms before she finds out about that," Arizona explains.

"Arizona, you need to step back, this isn't on you." Meredith says taking the blonde's hand into her own. "This is about Boswell being there today, isn't it?"

"I can't help feeling badly about it," Arizona admits.

"I get that, but you don't have anything to feel badly about now," Meredith reminds her. "Or did something happen?"

"No, nothing happened. Well, Lauren was there when I was leaving, but then Callie showed up and pretended like we had plans, so you could say that she sort of rescued me," Arizona explains awkwardly.

"Did you need rescued?" Meredith ask concerned, "Arizona?"

"No, I had the situation under control, but she's persistent. Callie just helped diffuse it more quickly," Arizona says looking up at her and smiling to reassure her.

"Does she know that you're seeing someone?" Meredith asks suddenly.

"Uh, I have no idea what she knows about me," Arizona replies.

"You didn't tell her that you were seeing someone?" Meredith questions again.

"Meredith, last time I told her that she took it as a personal challenge, so no I didn't tell her that I was seeing anyone, because it's doesn't matter, I wasn't interested in her when I was single, I sure as hell am not interested in her now" Arizona points out.

* * *

"Dr Robbins may I have a word with you?" Bailey asks intercepting the fetal surgeon at the elevator the next morning.

"You've read my email," Arizona states following her into her office.

"I did and I just spoke with Nathan Riggs, he expresses similar concerns about Blake. I'm meeting with her and Webber later this morning and I've already reached out to Seattle Med and Seattle Pres to see if I could secure another slot for her. But I wanted to make sure that this has nothing to do with Meredith Grey, I don't think it does, but I have to ask," she says carefully.

"Chief, this is about a resident who was prepared for a procedure and then simply froze up in my OR. I think that she's not performing well in our system and if she's unsuccessful here we're exposing ourselves to a potential lawsuit. In my opinion, she never should have been placed here. Had she been more forthcoming in her resident interview, this whole situation could have been avoided," Arizona points out.

"I don't disagree with you," Bailey replies. "Thank you Arizona."

"You're welcome Chief, now have Helene set up some time for us to discuss the fetal fellowship," Arizona says before turning to leave.

"What was that about?" Meredith asks surprised to see Arizona coming out of Bailey's office.

"Just reminding the Chief that we need to meet soon about the fetal fellowship," Arizona says smoothly, greeting her with a light kiss on the lips. "Now how about we go somewhere and really say good morning?"

Meredith's eyes twinkle and a smile plays across her lips as she pulls the blonde into her office and shuts the door. "Better?" she asks moving in close to kiss the blonde.

"Mmm," Arizona says returning the kiss and just as she's about to deepen it, her pager goes off. Looking at it she groans, "I have to go, but I'll see you later," she promises kissing her again before rushing out of the room.


	15. Chapter 15

"Blake is transferring out?" Alex asks entering Arizona's office that afternoon. "What did you do?"

"Why would you think that her transferring out has anything to do with me?" Arizona counters.

"Tell me what happened in your OR yesterday then," he challenges her.

"Alex, the point is that she's falling behind the other third years for whatever reason, I don't think it's appropriate for her to fail at this hospital, it puts us all at risk and she should never have been placed here to begin with," Arizona explains.

"I agree and I don't have a problem with her leaving," he replies. "I just worry that after Murphy, you and Torres are going to get reputation for running residents off."

"Nice Alex." She remarks angrily. "Murphy was a totally different situation. Anyway, how did you find out? They haven't announced anything yet."

"Jo saw her packing up her locker," he explains.

"Well, just keep this between us for now. Bailey will make an announcement at the appropriate time," Arizona reminds him.

* * *

"Bailey, what the hell is going on here? One day on Arizona's service and Penny is being transferred out of this hospital?" Callie asks bursting into her office.

"Shut the door Torres," Bailey says setting her phone back down. Then standing up she walks around her desk, "She came in here with a lot of baggage and dating you didn't help her. You know that there are rules against attendings dating residents and yet you let Blake take this position without notifying HR that you were in a relationship," she points out.

"Okay," she sputters, "But then why would you put her on Arizona's service?" Callie asks indignently.

"Aside from Webber, Arizona is the only attending here to give her an opportunity befitting a third year resident, three weeks ago Blake did well in general surgery with Arizona," Bailey counters. "But now she's not performing well. So we could keep her and continue to let her fail, exposing our hospital to a lawsuit or we can get her rematched with another program and let her transfer out and get a fresh start."

"Arizona didn't haze her," Callie says relieved.

"No, she didn't," Bailey replies. "Arizona is an excellent teacher, in fact, Blake requested a Peds rotation after working with Arizona when she was covering for Meredith in general surgery. Dr Torres the fact is, Blake failed to perform in the OR after demonstrating above average skill in the skills lab, which tells me that she's either not cut out to be surgeon or her confidence is blown, either way I don't think Sloan-Grey is the appropriate place for her to be training, we can't afford to have someone like her wash out of our program," she points out.

* * *

"Arizona, what did you do?" Meredith asks entering the blonde's office.

"Sorry, what?" she asks looking up at her girlfriend confused.

"You told Bailey to transfer Blake out of the program after one day on your service? And you didn't even discuss it with me?" Meredith challenges.

"Meredith, it didn't have anything to do with you. I had concerns about a resident's performance, so I notified the Chief of Surgery who assigned her to my service," Arizona replies firmly.

"She was my resident, I was training her," Meredith says angrily.

"I worked with her when I was covering your service, she was fine." Arizona points out. "But Meredith, yesterday she froze in my OR and I had to call in another surgeon to assist me. I don't know what happened, but she doesn't belong here if she cannot perform consistently. I almost lost a patient," she adds.

"Why didn't you tell me about any of that last night?" Meredith asks, disappointment clear on her face.

"I didn't want us to spend the evening talking about Penny Blake, especially after we had already discussed Boswell," Arizona explains.

"Okay," Meredith says crossing the room to sit on the edge of her desk.

"I'm sorry that you found out this way, I was going to tell you this morning in your office, but I was paged," Arizona says rolling over in her chair to face her. Taking her hands she pulls her down into a light kiss.

"I'm still surprised that you addressed this so quickly, I would have thought that you would have taken it as a challenge," Meredith remarks.

"I probably would have, but after discussing it with Dr Riggs, I realized this is potential black eye for our program and she's done enough damage to Sloan-Grey," Arizona points out.

"Riggs, what does Riggs have to do with this?" Meredith asks concerned.

"I paged Cardio for and an assist and he was available, he is an excellent surgeon by the way," Arizona comments, " But he pointed out that her failure in our program could really hurt our standings."

"Riggs said that?" Meredith asks. Confused that he would care about the hospital's reputation.

* * *

"Hey," Arizona says entering April's condo with three bags of alcohol. "I wasn't sure what you'd be in the mood for, so I got a little of everything. Champagne, tequila, Pinot Noir..." she continues talking as she sets the bags on the counter. Then noticing that April is still sitting quietly on the couch she glances over at her expecting a response, she adds, "Pick your poison."

"No thanks," April says from the couch.

"Ah, what's happening?" Arizona exclaims surprised. "Did you already start drinking without me?" she questions.

"Um, no I-I-I could eat though. I think that I'm hungry," April stammers, still in a daze from the events of the day.

Confused, Arizona walks over to her friend, "You just got divorced and you don't want to drink?" she asks. "What? Are you pregnant?" she teases.

April looks at her, fear crosses the redhead's face, before she quickly looks away.

Sitting down beside her friend, Arizona takes her hand, "April, are you sure?" she asks softly.

"According to the test I took this morning, yeah, I think I am." April explains and a small smile spreads across her face.

* * *

"You're at work early for someone who spent last night drinking," Alex smirks when he spots Arizona the next morning.

"I didn't drink last night. April wasn't in the mood, we just hung out and talked," Arizona explains. "How was Jackson?"

"We shot hoops and drank beer for a couple hours, he's good, relieved I think but not happy about it either," Alex admits.

"Did he talk to you?" Arizona asks.

"Not really," Alex admits. "How's Kepner?"

"She's a mess. You know, she didn't want this, but she did it for him. He wanted it, so she agreed. I get it, I did the same thing for Callie." Arizona points out.

"Yeah, but look at you now. The divorce was a good thing, now you're happy with Mer," he remarks.

"Alex there was nothing good about my marriage ending. I failed to be the person that I had promised to be. Fortunately I have been given a second chance and I don't intend to make the same mistakes with Meredith that I made with Calliope," Arizona replies confidently.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Meredith asks. They're eating lunch in Arizona's office, but the blonde has been really quiet.

"I'm just tired. I was up late with April last night talking," she explains.

"Talking? I thought you went over there to drink?" Meredith asks.

"She didn't want to drink, so we ordered Thai and talked. I just feel so badly for her, I've been where she is and you'd think that I'd have some words of wisdom or something, but I've got nothing. It sucks and it hurts but you survive," Arizona replies.

"I just can't believe that they actually went through with the divorce," Meredith remarks. "Of all of us, I thought they'd be the ones to get the happy ever after."

"Do you really think there's such a thing as happy ever after?" Arizona asks her.

"I never used to but then I fell in love with Derek and it seemed possible," she admits. "I still like to think that there's one out there, that there's a 'happy ever after' out there."

Smiling tearfully, Arizona leans over and kisses her. "Me too," she confesses, "I hope there's one out there too."

* * *

"Are you doing alright?" Callie asks April as they go through the food line in the cafeteria. "Because after Arizona and I got divorced, I felt like my insides were ripped out of me." she adds.

"No, I-I-I, uh, yeah it was awful. But, uh amicable, I guess is the word, but um, also civil, polite and awful. But, I, uh, I feel good. Yeah, I feel really good about everything." April replies before walking away.

"You got divorced really different from how I did," Callie says under her breath as the redhead walks away from her.

* * *

"Hey, I just spoke to April. She seems like she's doing okay with everything," Callie says as she sits down in the lounge beside Arizona, who is on her phone.

"Uh, yeah she's good," Arizona replies not really paying attention.

"So what's going on with you?" Callie asks reaching over and placing her hand over the phone.

Looking up Arizona smiles, "Have you spoken with Penny lately?" she asks.

"Not really, exchanged a text on her first day at Pres, but no not really why?" Callie asks. "Is that her? Are you texting with my ex?"

"Oh no. NO!" Arizona stammers, "I'm, uh, texting with Samantha," she says rapidly.

"Okay," Callie replies slowly, now quite confused as to how those two things are related. "Arizona you lost me. You asked about my ex but you're texting with your ex..." she asks before closing her eyes. "They're dating," Callie remarks.

"Uh, yeah I wondered if you knew," Arizona grimaces.

"No, when did they start?" Callie asks and from the look on the blonde's face, she can tell that she doesn't want to know.

"Callie, it's not what you think. She told Sam you guys broke up," Arizona explains.

"But you know that we weren't exactly broken up, so this is actually why we broke up, she was cheating on me and at least smart enough not to tell me," Callie says rapidly, trying not to feel sorry for herself.

"Calliope, she's cheating on Sam now too," Arizona says softly.

"Oh god, really? Wow, I guess I dodged a bullet then. Thank you?" she says looking up with soft brown eyes at the blonde.

"Why are you thanking me?" Arizona asks.

"Thank you for getting her transferred out of here before she turned me into more fodder for the gossip mill," Callie admits laughing sadly to herself.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: any spoilers in this chapter are a fluke, as I've only seen the ABC promos for the next episode.**

* * *

"How long will you be gone?" Arizona asks.

"Just the day, I'll be back that night," Meredith replies.

"You're going to fly there," the blonde says, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

"We're going to fly there," Meredith repeats.

"Why do you have to go?" Arizona asks. "I don't understand why they need you and Bailey?"

"Arizona, stop freaking out about this," Meredith says leaning in to put their heads together. "It will be fine," she adds.

The blonde pulls away from her and stands up to pace the room. Meredith watches her concerned.

"Meredith, you think it will be fine because the odds of you being in another plane crash are really low, but you and I both know that we seem to defy the odds," Arizona snaps, her hand running through her hair worriedly.

Meredith crosses the office and takes the blonde into her arms, "Bailey had this charter company vetted and legal had an independent company review the maintenance logs for their planes," she reminds her. "You know that I don't like to fly any more than you do, so please don't make this harder on me than it already is," Meredith says, her voice cracking with emotion.

"Oh god, I'm sorry," Arizona replies pulling back to stare into her girlfriend's hazel eyes.

Blinking away tears, Meredith licks her lips, "Arizona, marry me," she blurts out.

"Wait. What?" Arizona says confused.

"What are we waiting for? We love each other and we've talked about wanting to raise our kids together as a family," Meredith says rapidly. "Wait, I should have a ring. I'm sorry, I'm not doing this right," she says putting her hands on her head.

"Meredith, you're serious?" Arizona says as she begins to realize that the other woman is seriously proposing marriage.

"I am, I just should have waited to ask, I'm sorry," Meredith replies disappointed.

"I-I-I just never thought I'd get married again, after everything before and I don't know if I can do it," Arizona stammers. "Please know that I love you. I'm crazy in love with you," she clarifies as she walks over to her, placing a hand on each shoulder to face her.

"Just not enough to marry me," Meredith points out sadly, before shrugging off the blonde's touch and crossing the office to walk out.

* * *

"I'm not happy about having four board members on a small plane together after everything that has happened," Webber argues with Catherine.

"We've vetted the charter company and their maintenance is spotless. Richard you know as well as I do that the odds of another plane crashing with our surgeons on board is extremely unlikely," Catherine reminds him and then moves in closer to try to soothe his concerns.

"It's only unlikely until it happens," he counters. "Let's at least pull Meredith off the team, we shouldn't send both Bailey and Grey," he counters.

"Why don't we discuss this with Miranda in the morning," she suggests moving into his arms, "darling, let's not spend our entire evening debating this."

* * *

"Alex, I don't know what to do. I'm not ready to tell him that I'm pregnant, but if anything happens on this trip and I haven't told him, I'll never forgive myself," April says freaking out after finding out that Jackson is on the team of surgeons flying to the VA hospital in Portland.

"Nothing's going to happen on this trip. But you should really tell him when he gets back, you're going to pop in another week or two, then he'll be pissed that you haven't told him," Alex points out.

"I know, I know," April says hiding her face. "And now Catherine's here so I have to avoid her too."

"Crap, you should just go tell him now, because Catherine Avery is going to know you're pregnant as soon as she lays eyes on you, that's her grandkid in there," he points out.

* * *

Arizona is still sitting stunned in her office, it's been over an hour since her fight with Meredith and even though she went after her, the other woman slipped into the stairwell and disappeared. Now she's sent three text messages and left four voicemails, two on her cell phone and two on her office line.

Alex knocks on the door and enters, "Hey, why did you page me?" he asks concerned.

"I need your help, Meredith and I had a fight," she confesses.

"Just apologize," he replies.

"I did, but this is a really big one Alex, she asked me to marry her," Arizona replies.

"Wait, what?" He asks crossing the room and leaning on the desk, "She asked you to marry her, here at work?"

"We were arguing about her going on the trip to Portland and I asked her not to go and then she blurts out the proposal," she explains.

"Okay, but you said no? I thought you guys were like on track for that, you were joking the other day about paying for three weddings," he reminds her.

"I know but I just never thought I'd get married, then I did and it didn't work out, I don't know if I can do it again," she confesses.

"What do you want me to do?" he asks.

"Please just go find Meredith and be there for her and maybe remind her that I love her," Arizona asks carefully.

"Okay," he says shaking his head. "But maybe you and Jo should spend some time together and figure out how to respond to marriage proposals."

* * *

"She was so against this divorce, but now she seems fine," Jackson remarks sitting in Callie's office.

"Yeah, I talked to her earlier this week and she seemed fine with it," Callie replies agreeing with him.

"I don't know. Maybe she's just covering or something," he suggests.

"Your divorce is so different from mine," Callie remarks, then she pauses to think. "Uh, Jackson you two were having sex during your counseling, right?" she asks.

"Yeah, I know the therapist warned us not to and you told me not to," he replies, "Wait, why are you asking about that?"

"What if she's pregnant Jackson? Pregnancy floods your body with oxytocin, remember how happy she was during her first pregnancy?" Callie reminds him.

"No, she couldn't be pregnant. She'd tell me," he says confidently.

"But would she tell you if she thought it wouldn't make a difference?" Callie asks.

"What?" he asks confused.

"If she was against the divorce, then she may not be telling you about her pregnancy because she doesn't want you to come back to her just because she's pregnant, especially after what happened last time. I bet that she's going to get fetal testing done, maybe she's waiting for those test results before she tells you about the baby," Callie suggests.

"But she shouldn't be going through all of that alone," Jackson points out.

"I'm sure that Arizona's helping her with it," Callie reassures him.

"Okay, but still if she's pregnant that's my child too and I should be there," he replies.

"Well, then you should go talk to her and find out what's going on," Callie counters.

* * *

"Hey what are you doing?" Alex says entering the conference room and plopping down in the chair beside her.

"I'm hiding and charting," she remarks barely glancing up. "Did Arizona tell you what happened?"

"Just that you two had a fight and she's worried about you because you're not answering her texts or voice mails," he explains.

"I know that she loves me and my proposal was sudden and caught her off guard," Meredith admits, "But I'm pissed that this is the first time that she's mentioned not wanting to get married again."

"You were on Callie's side, so you didn't see her side of it. Meredith, she was devastated," he explains.

"I get that, but I'm not Callie," she replies.

"No you're not, but I think what she's saying is that she loves you as deeply as she loved Callie, so you two not working out would devastate her as much as that did," he points out.

* * *

"April, can I talk with you a minute?" Jackson asks approaching her in the ER.

"Sure, is there a problem with the condo?" she asks.

"No," he replies confused for a minute, then realizing that she's worried, he adds, "Uh, I'm just wondering how you're doing?" he says pulling her off to the side.

"I-I-I'm fine, why have you heard something?" she asks worriedly.

"You'd tell me if you weren't fine though?" he asks.

"Uh, okay sure if that's something you'd want to know I could agree to tell you that," she replies confused.

"Are you pregnant?" he blurts out realizing that the conversation doesn't make sense.

"What?" she asks trying to buy time so she can think.

"April, are you pregnant?" he asks again.

She bursts into tears and he wraps an arm around her and they step into an empty trauma room.

"How long have you known?" he asks trying to stay calm.

"I found out after we signed our divorce papers. I thought that I was just sick over the stress of the divorce, but then I remembered how I felt the last time I was pregnant, so I went and bought a test and it was positive," she admits.

"So have you seen the OB yet? Have you had an ultrasound, what's going on?" he asks softly.

"I have an ultrasound scheduled next week and I've scheduled some advance fetal testing, I was trying to wait until the tests were in before I told you," she replies.

"You don't have to do any of this alone, this is my child too," he reminds her.

"Yes, but we're not together now, so I just thought I would protect you, just in case the tests weren't favorable," she says tearfully.

"No April," he says adamantly, "No, that's not how this works. That's my baby as much as it's yours, so we do this together. Everything, you're not doing any of it alone," Jackson says firmly.

"Uh, okay," she says drying her eyes on her sleeve. "How did you find out?" she finally asks.

"That's not important," he replies. "But you know that we're going to have to tell my mom."

"Can we please wait until after the ultrasound and tests?" April asks. "After Samuel, I just don't want people to know unless..." her voice trails off and he takes her in his arms.

"Yes, we can wait until next week to tell her," he says softly holding her.

* * *

"Hey can we talk?" Meredith asks entering Arizona's office.

Turning around in her chair at the sound of Meredith's voice, Arizona rushes over to her. "Meredith, I'm so sorry," she blurts out as she wraps her arms around her.

"I'm sorry too," Meredith replies kissing her lips. "But I need to explain something to you though," she says shutting the door behind her.

"When Derek died, I just assumed that I'd be alone the rest of my life," she explains. "I wasn't expecting to have this again. But then I never thought I'd have it the first time. A marriage with kids was never part of my plan."

"We have that in common," Arizona replies pulling her in close. "I never even considered being married would be an option for me."

"You proposed to Callie though, so what changed?" Meredith asks.

"Everything happened and it all went to hell and somehow we figured it out and she was pregnant," Arizona replies. "Things with us were never easy, even the good things were hard. I mean we were having a child together, but Mark was the father. We survived the shooting but then I had to go to Africa. She survived the car wreck and then I was in a plane crash. I survived the plane crash, but I lost my leg. It wasn't fair, love shouldn't be that fucking hard."

"So now we get together and I'm attacked at the hospital, you think this is what happens when you love someone?" Meredith asks, suddenly understanding what's going on in the blonde's head. "No Arizona, this happening to me has nothing to do with you. Bad things happen to people everyday." Meredith reminds her.

"I'm just so scared Meredith, I-I-I can't lose you," she stammers, tears spilling down her face.

"You won't," Meredith murmurs in her ear. "I'm not going anywhere," she replies holding her tight.

* * *

 _ **A/N: as this story is tied to S 12, updates will be a little slower, two chapters a week at the least, but I'm going to keep updating it!**_


	17. Chapter 17

_**A/N: I'm planning at least one more chapter for this one this week.**_

* * *

April bursts into Arizona's office at the end of the day, "Jackson knows," she says excitedly. Then noticing Arizona's red puffy eyes she asks, "Uh, Arizona what's wrong?"

"It's just been a really long day," she says drying her eyes with the sleeve of her lab coat. "How did Jackson find out?" Arizona asks.

"I don't know, but he was upset with me for not telling him. He said that I didn't need to protect him, it's his baby too. I feel so relieved, you were right, I should have told him sooner," she replies crossing the room and sitting down on the edge of the desk.

Looking up at her friend, Arizona smiles and takes her hand and gives it a squeeze. "I'm really happy for you two and I know that you'll figure this out," she replies before slumping back into her chair and covering her hands with her face.

"Arizona, tell me what's going on. Did something happen between you and Callie today"? April asks, noting that Callie was oddly reflective at lunch today.

"Meredith asked me to marry her," Arizona blurts out tearfully.

"Oh my God!" April utters loudly, "That is so exciting!"

Then noticing the blonde's tears, she adds, "Wait, no it's not exciting. You're not happy about it? You said no?" she asks confused.

"I didn't say no," Arizona replies sitting up quickly, "I did not say no. I just said that I wasn't ready to think about marriage again."

"That sounds an awful lot like no," April points out.

"Yeah, she thought so too and she left and wouldn't discuss it with me. But she came back and I think we have it worked out now, but April this is something that she really wants to do," Arizona retorts. "I know that I'm wrong, but it's so clear in my mind; if I don't remarry then I don't have to go through another divorce," she explains.

"You can't look at it that way," April says softly. "You have to believe in love. Arizona you can't let fear dictate how you live your life."

"April, my fear of flying was based on the reality of surviving a plane crash, just as my fear of marriage is based on surviving a divorce," Arizona points out.

"Look, you went to a hypnotherapist to get over your fear of flying, maybe she can also help you get over your fear of marriage?" April counters.

* * *

"You look like crap," Jo says entering the blonde's office looking for Alex.

"It's been a rough day," Arizona admits to her friend.

"Do you want to talk about it? Alex just sent me a text saying that he's hung up, which is his code for talking with Meredith," she explains.

Arizona groans at the mention of Meredith's name and heads to her en suite bathroom.

"Did something happen with you and Meredith today?" Jo asks following the blonde to the open door and watching her pat her face with a cold washcloth.

"We were arguing about her flying to Portland on that case. Then in the middle of it, she blurts out a marriage proposal," Arizona explains.

"Oh god, that's terrible. She is as bad as Alex!" Jo remarks. "How did you respond?" she questions.

"Not well. I mean we've discussed living together and raising the kids together, but we can do that without getting married. She and Derek mainly got married because they wanted to adopt Zola and then they just went to city hall and did it. Somehow Meredith has it in her head that she wants a big wedding. Jo, I've already done that and I don't know if I can do it again," Arizona reveals.

"Alex pretty much did the same thing to me, twice now." Jo says crossing her arms. "I guess if we decide that we want to marry them, we're going to have to do the proposing, so it's done correctly."

"No , I need a drink. Why don't you join me at Joe's, Alex can pick you up over there," Arizona suggests.

"You want me to tell him who I'm having a drink with?" Jo asks pulling her phone out of her pocket.

Arizona shrugs, "It's fine, Meredith and I have already talked and made up. I-I'm just not quite ready to go home to an empty house. Go change and we'll meet downstairs in ten minutes."

* * *

"They're here," Jo says laughing as they enter the bar.

"What the hell?" Arizona asks stepping around her to see for herself.

Jo starts to walk towards Alex and Meredith, who have their backs to the door, when Arizona grabs her arm, "No, not yet. Let's get a drink first."

"I thought you said you two made up already," Jo asks confused, but following the blonde over to the bar opposite Alex and Meredith.

"We did, but I just need a minute," Arizona remarks, "I can't afford to mess this up again by saying the wrong thing."

Noting that Arizona has managed to chose two seats at the bar, where they can see Alex and Meredith in the mirror.

"Pinot Noir for me, Jo what are you drinking?" Arizona asks sitting down and checking the view.

"Same," she replies. "Okay, so what's the plan?"

"We drink this glass of wine and relax a moment before we go join them," Arizona replies as the bartender sets the two glasses of wine down in front of them.

* * *

"Seriously, she knows I'm sitting here and she doesn't say anything to me? Alex, I thought that we were okay. We seemed okay when I left her office earlier," Meredith replies, nervously shredding another cocktail napkin.

"Give her a minute. I didn't tell Jo that we were here, so it caught Robbins off guard. She just needs a minute, she'll come to you," he says confidently taking another swig of his beer.

"God Alex! I'm such a mess. What's happening to me? I didn't even want to marry Derek and now I'm the one proposing!" Meredith proclaims motioning to the bartender to pour her another glass of wine.

"Look, you guys are great together and she was scared about the trip, you were trying to reassure her that you weren't going anywhere, so you proposed. It happens, but it's the worst reason to propose, so I've found out anyway," he remarks finishing off his beer and asking for another one.

"We are good together, which is why this awkwardness is killing me. It's going to pass right, I mean you and Jo aren't still awkward around each other, are you?" she asks.

He grimaces. "We're still a little awkward," he admits.

"Damn it. I can't take awkward, not with her," Meredith says sliding off her barstool.

"Wait, wait, where are you going? Don't go over there yet," he advises grabbing her arm.

"Relax, I'm going to the ladies' room," she says brushing his hand off her arm.

* * *

Arizona watches the exchange in the mirror and then watches Meredith make her way to the bathroom. Taking a long sip of her wine, she considers her options.

Meredith is standing at the sink washing her hands when Arizona enters.

"Hey," the blonde says softly.

Meredith looks up at her in the mirror and then turns around. "You're avoiding me," she accuses the blonde, as she stand with her back to the mirror carefully observing Arizona's reaction.

"I'm not," Arizona proclaims rushing over to Meredith and placing her hands on the other woman's hips, "I just needed to do this privately," she says leaning in to kiss her.

Meredith's whole body relaxes as she slips her arms around Arizona and deepens the kiss.

"Um, Callie and Maggie have the kids tonight, I was hoping that we could go to your place and talk?" Meredith asks hopefully.

Arizona smiles, then takes her hand and leads her out of the bathroom. Jo is now talking with Alex and holding Arizona's purse and phone.

"We're leaving," Meredith says picking up her phone and calling a cab.

"You guys are good?" Alex asks looking at Arizona.

She nods and then takes her things from Jo and gives the younger woman a hug. "Thanks Jo," she says warmly.

"Anytime Arizona," Jo replies returning the embrace.

Alex turns to Meredith and gives her a hug, "Now just chill tonight and don't bring it up again," he whispers into her ear.

* * *

"It's not about marriage. Today, our fight. It wasn't about marriage," Arizona says softly, laying on her back with Meredith wrapped around her.

"I'm pretty sure it was about marriage," Meredith retorts.

"It wasn't though. I think we both realized today how deeply we feel for each other. It scared the hell out of me, but you embraced it." Arizona explains.

"No it scared the hell out of me too," Meredith replies, raising herself up so that she can see the blonde's face. "But Arizona we are in this together, that's the whole point of being together so you don't have to face the scary stuff alone."

"But what if being together is the scary stuff?" Arizona asks, a slow smile spreading across her face.

"You don't seem scared now," Meredith points out returning the smile and leaning in to kiss her lightly.

"Losing you would devastate me," Arizona admits, whispering it softly into her ear.

"Then don't lose me," Meredith says kissing her neck and nuzzling her ear, carefully sliding her hand down between them.

Abruptly, Meredith finds herself on her back with her hands pinned above her. Arizona stares into her eyes a moment, before crashing their lips together and kissing her deeply. "I'm going to ruin you," she says her blue eyes dark with desire, "no one will ever make you feel like this," she says slowly trailing hot kisses down the trembling body beneath her.

"A-Ari-Arizona," Meredith gasps, almost coming undone just anticipating her touch.

* * *

The next morning Meredith wakes up in the bed alone. She looks around the room and notices Arizona's prosthetic is in it's usual place, so at least she knows the blonde hasn't left. Putting on a robe, she makes her way into the kitchen to find Arizona making breakfast.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Meredith asks slipping her hands around the blonde.

"I woke up starving and realized that we never ate dinner, so I thought I'd make us both breakfast," she explains turning around in her arms so she can kiss her good morning.

"Mmm," Meredith replies. "Still part of your plan to ruin me for anyone else?" she teases.

Arizona laughs and her eyes flash the most beautiful shade of blue it takes Meredith's breath away. She reaches up and places her hands on either side of the blonde's face, "You are mesmerizing and breathtakingly beautiful" she exclaims breathlessly.

Turning off the stove, Arizona turns to her, "Meredith, I would be an idiot not to want to marry you."

"Yes, you would be. Does that mean I should ask you again?" Meredith asks pulling her back into her arms.

"Maybe I'll ask you this time," Arizona quips before leaning in and kissing her.


	18. Chapter 18

"How did the practice go?" Arizona asks when Meredith calls to say that she's on her way home. They decided that it would be easier if the blonde just stayed at Meredith's with the kids for a few days while Meredith and the rest of the team practiced the surgery each night.

"It went okay, but this one had mostly healthy tissue and bone, the tumor wasn't that big; it's not really the same as what we'll be dealing with in Portland," she points out. "I can't wait to get home, I'll see you soon," she adds yawning.

"Drive safely, you sound tired," Arizona replies. "Oh and I love you."

"I love you too, see you soon," Meredith says before ending the call. Standing up she slips on her jacket and then walks around the corner of the locker row to see if Callie's ready.

"What's wrong?" Meredith asks, when she see Callie sitting on the bench with a zoned out look on her face.

"I heard you. You just pointed out to Arizona that there was healthy tissue and bone. I'm going to reevaluate the next practice session and see if we can find another cadaver," she answers thoughtfully.

"What's wrong?" Bailey asks entering the locker room. "The practice went well. We did it, you should feel proud of yourself Torres, it's a solid plan."

"Except we practiced on cadaver with a small tumor, healthy tissue and bones. Bailey what if we don't have enough healthy bone to work with?" Callie asks worriedly.

"Callie this is why we're practicing, each cadaver will challenge us differently," Meredith reminds her.

"Call Portland VA and ask for updated scans in the morning," Bailey replies easily.

"That's the problem, the VA doesn't have updated equipment, if we could just get them to bring him here," Callie laments.

"Let's go talk with Hunt and see if they will consider transferring him here for the procedure," Meredith suggests, inwardly sighing, because of the delay... she really wanted to leave.

* * *

Callie, Meredith and Bailey are walking out when Jackson joins them, they look up and see Hunt approaching them.

"Oh good there you are, the timeline has changed," Hunt informs them. "Your patient fell today and fractured his pelvis, cutting off the blood supply to the leg you want to salvage. He's stable now, but that could change overnight, if you don't go now, you may not get another chance."

"So we need to fly there tonight?" Meredith blurts out.

"Well, no actually. They rushed him to the Bauer VA Medical Center in Tacoma, so Security will drive you there in our transport. Grab the equipment you'll need and get loaded up. I told them you'd be there in two hours." Hunt explains.

* * *

Meredith is leaning against the van, after calling Arizona back to give her the update, she had to track down Warren to make sure that he was all set to cover her service for the next 24 hours. Now she's just waiting for the others and trying to stay awake.

Callie shows up and hands Meredith a large coffee, "Here, I figured if I needed one, you probably did too."

"Thanks," Meredith replies.

"Is everything okay with Arizona?" Callie asks.

"Yeah, the kids are all in bed," Meredith explains.

"At least we're not flying," Callie remarks.

"Yes, that helps, a lot." Meredith comments, relief evident in her face and voice.

* * *

The drive to Tacoma is relatively quiet, everyone feels the pressure of the unproven procedure on a patient none of them has even examined yet.

"ETA is 20 minutes," the driver calls out.

* * *

"Okay, so it will be just like we practiced," Callie says confidently. "We'll be great. Everything will be perfect and amazing, we'll make medical history."

"And remember people, we are guests here and Hunt wants us on our best behavior, don't ruffle any feathers," Bailey reminds them.

* * *

"Colonel Miller," Bailey greets the tall man as they enter the building. "It's great to finally have a face to go with the voice," she adds cordially.

"Likewise Chief Bailey," he replies reaching out to shake her hand. Then turning to the doctor beside him, "This is Captain Vaughn, she's here to make sure that your team has everything they need tonight."

"Colonel, what the hell?" another man calls out approaching the group.

"Dr Bailey this is Major Thorpe, he's Sargant Carson's..." Colonel Miller begins.

"I'm Carson's surgeon. Colonel, you transferred my patient against my wishes and now you've brought in what a 'dream team' to operate on my patient?" He scoffs angrily.

"Major Thorpe, we're not here to step on anyone's toes," Bailey begins to explain, when she's cut off.

"You are here to make my patient a guinea pig," Major Thorpe bellows.

"How about we all take a step back," Jackson interjects taking Bailey's back.

"Oh you can all take ten steps back and out that door, go back to Seattle, you're not needed here," Thorpe replies loudly.

Now Bailey steps in again, "Sir, I understand that you want what is best for your patient. Is this surgery risky? Yes, it is. But like you we want what is best for your patient and if it works..."

"Oh it will work," Callie interjects. Then she continues, "Major, your Chief asked for our help because he knows that we're the best. Now you called us the dream team and that's exactly what we are, we are miracle workers. Now the sooner you recognize that, the sooner we can get to the business of saving this man's life, which is what any of us is here to do, yourself included."

* * *

They are halfway through the surgery and Torres just removed the man's bad leg exposing the tumor and the pelvic bone, when she stops and glances up carefully, trying to get Meredith's attention.

"Dr Grey, I need to see you a moment," Callie says her voice oddly high as she nods toward the scrub room.

Bailey looks up concerned, "Is there something that I can help you with?" she asks carefully.

"No, Dr Grey ... please, one moment," Callie says her voice breaking again as she backs away from the table.

Meredith looks around the table and then backs away, she pauses at the door and the tech wraps her hands so she won't have to rescrub when she re-enters the OR.

"Callie, what?" she asks impatiently.

"I don't think I can do this," Callie blurts out.

"Wait, what are you talking about? Everything is going great in there," Meredith counters confused as she sees the clear panic in her friend's eyes.

"Meredith, there's not enough healthy bone left to attach to the sacrum like we planned," she explains. "I don't know what to do."

"You figure it out, that's what you do," Meredith exclaims before walking back into the OR.

* * *

Callie is still pacing in the hallway, when Meredith reappears with Bailey and Jackson, "Now tell them what you told me," she directs the panicking surgeon.

"I can't do the reconstruction," Callie begins.

"Torres! What the hell are you saying?" Bailey exclaims in a loud whisper.

"I had to resect to wider margins than we had planned, now there's no sacrum to attach the leg too," she explains.

They all begin talking over each other excitedly with concern for the patient when Callie finally blurts out, "This isn't helping! You're not telling me anything that I don't already know and this isn't a confidence thing, I can't do this the way we planned because there's nothing there to attach the grafts to. Look you guys just go back in there and keep the patient stable, I need space to think."

The three of them look at her worriedly before heading back into the OR to monitor the patient and keep him stabilized.

* * *

"Meredith, go I'm not ready," Callie snaps. "I need more time," she says softly, her hand going to her brow.

"I get it. You need time and space, you're not ready. But here's the thing, sometimes more time and space doesn't really help. Sometimes you need a push, so let's work through this together. If we were in the cadaver lab and we had another run through and this happened, what would you do?" Meredith questions, hoping to get Torres to focus.

"Uh, we don't have time for this Meredith," Callie whines.

"Focus Torres!" Meredith replies sternly. "Now answer my question! We're in the cadaver lab and this happens, what's your first step?"

"Okay, okay, I would review the biomechanics... then I would recalculate the angles," Callie responds, her mind finally starting to work through the problem. Then she suddenly pulls out her phone to make a call. So Meredith returns to the OR.

* * *

"She's out there on the phone? You all came in here without a well thought out surgical plan and now my patient is going to die on this table," the military surgeon bellows angrily.

"Just wait a second..." Meredith begins to argue, when the OR door suddenly pops open.

"I've got it. I can cut off the proximal end of the femur, then flip it around and make it into a sacrum," she explains excitedly looking over at Jackson.

"You can do that?" Meredith asks looking from Callie to Jackson.

"Yes, it's been done before successfully," she adds looking over to the military surgeon who has been second guessing her through the entire procedure. "Dr Avery, let's go look at that femur," she says turning abruptly to leave.

"See, we have a plan," Meredith says confidently to the military surgeon.

"We're the dream team," Bailey replies trying to exude confidence that she no longer feels.

* * *

Arizona is feeding the kids breakfast when Meredith walks into the house. "Meredith?" she calls out.

"Hey, we did it," she says plopping down in a chair and resting her head on the dining room table.

The blonde goes over to her and bends down and kisses the spot on the back of her neck, "You should go shower and go to bed," she says softly.

"I can't move, I'm exhausted," she mumbles into the table.

Zola and Sofia go over to her, "We'll help you, Mommy," Zola says lifting up one of Meredith's arms and slipping it around her small shoulders.

Meredith sits up and smiles at her daughter, "You think you two can help me up the stairs?" she asks amused at their concern and desire to help her.

"Yes!" Sofia says stepping up beside Zola and trying to stand as tall as possible.

Meredith turns to Arizona and smiles at her, "Okay girls, let's get me upstairs," she says looking down at them and standing up slowly.

Arizona smiles as she watches the girls help Meredith up the stairs.

"Hey Bailey boy, you need to finish your breakfast, okay?" she reminds him gently, then turning to Ellis and offering her another spoonful, she adds, "And so do you little miss."

* * *

"Girls! Ms Spencer is here to take you to school," Arizona calls up the stairs. "Thank you so much, Meredith just got home," she explains to the nanny.

"It's not a problem Dr Robbins," Ms Spencer replies, "But maybe I should go see if I can motivate them," she adds heading up the stairs.

Arizona looks at Ellis and realizes that her hands are covered in cereal which is now in her hair again, "Oh baby, maybe we'll just take a shower together," she exclaims bouncing her on her hip.

"Girls your lunches are on the counter," she reminds them as they come down the stairs with the nanny behind them.

"I'll pick you both up from daycare after work, so please get your homework done, we're having family dinner tonight," she reminds them.

"Is Mami coming over for family dinner?" Sofia asks.

"I'll ask her, but she worked all night with Meredith, so she may not be up for it sweetheart," Arizona replies reaching out to brush her daughter's hair with her fingers. "Okay, kisses," she says bending down and Sofia and Zola kiss her goodbye.

* * *

In the master bath, Arizona sets Ellis in the bath cradle on the bath bench, before she removes her clothes and prosthetic to get into the shower. She already tucked a sleepy Bailey into bed with Meredith before embarking on this shower adventure with Ellis.

It actually works better than she thought it would, Ellis doesn't mind the shower mist in her face and she lays patiently waiting for Arizona to wash her hair and rinse off. Turning off the shower, Arizona sits down on the bench and then grabs a towel to dry off the baby. Then she moves the bath cradle to the floor, slides down the bench and opens the shower door and lays Ellis in the carrier she set on the floor right outside the shower.

"Wow, you are just amazing," Meredith says from the doorway startling Arizona.

"Uh, we were both covered in cereal," she explains. "Why are you up?" Arizona asks.

Meredith turns around to show her wet pajamas, "Bailey wet the bed," she explains.

"Sorry, I should have..." the blonde begins to apologize.

"Stop, you don't have to apologize for my child wetting my bed," Meredith says coming over to her and offers her a towel.

Arizona stands up and carefully wraps it around herself, then Meredith hands her the crutches and leans in to kiss her before stripping off her own pajamas and stepping into the shower.

"I took his clothes off and put him in his own bed, but I'll deal with him after I rinse off and get dressed, okay?" she asks.

"Meredith, you're exhausted. I'll take care of him," Arizona replies, taking a moment to gaze at the other woman's body before she shuts the shower door.

"Don't think I didn't notice you checking me out," she teases.

"Good thing I'm staying another night!" she replies playfully, sitting down to pull her socket on and then her prosthetic.

* * *

Ms Spencer returns from running the girls to school, just as Arizona is stripping the bed. "In here," the blonde calls out.

"Oh no, what happened?" the nanny asks.

"I put Bailey in bed with Meredith so I could get cleaned up with Ellis in the bathroom, he, uh, he wet the bed. She's in the shower now." Arizona explains. "Would you mind going and cleaning him up, he's in his bed."

"Of course, Dr Robbins. But first let's get this bed back together for Dr Grey," she says stepping into the room to help remake the bed quickly. Then grabbing Ellis, she leaves the room.

Meredith re-enters the bedroom and is surprised to see the bed already put back together.

"Ms Spencer is back and she has both of them with her getting Bailey squared away," Arizona says crossing the room to close the bedroom door.

Meredith sits down and pats the spot beside her on the bed, "Come here a minute," she asks softly.

Concerned Arizona goes over to the bed and sits down beside her, "Meredith..." she starts to say, but her words are cut off by a soft kiss.

"Stop talking," Meredith replies pulling back slowly and putting her finger on the blonde's lips. "I know that you said that you need time and space, but I don't think you do. In fact, everything that I've seen this morning indicates that you are ready to do this, so I'm not giving you any more time or space," Meredith replies and moves to her knees beside the bed.

"M-M-Meredith," Arizona stammers, watching in shock as the other woman pulls a small box out of her bedside table.

"Arizona Robbins, will you marry me?" she asks taking the ring out and offering it to the blonde.

Shaking her head, shocked to say the least, Arizona looks at her and then nods, yes. "Yes, I will," she says leaning in to kiss her and pull her back up onto the bed, before going over to her overnight bag and pulling out a small box and returning to bed. "But only if you'll marry me," she says laughing and slipping the ring on Meredith's hand.


	19. Chapter 19

"Are we telling people?" Arizona asks carefully.

"We should probably tell the kids first and Callie and Maggie," Meredith points out.

"What about Alex?" Arizona asks.

"Alex will be fine with it and he sort of already knows," Meredith answers.

"Okay, so do we do this tonight?" Arizona questions, "We were already planning family dinner with the kids and Sofia wanted to invite Callie."

"I'll check with Maggie and see if she can be here, otherwise I can tell her separately," Meredith replies.

"Okay, just keep me posted. I'm really late now, so I should get dressed and get to the hospital," Arizona says leaning in to kiss her one more time. "I love you."

* * *

"You're smiling. I mean you smile a lot, but this is really smiling. What's going on?" April asks following Arizona into her office.

"I can't tell you yet, but it's really good," Arizona replies carefully. "Now how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, how are you?" she replies.

"How are you really feeling?" Arizona insists.

"It's twelve weeks and I am great," April looks up smiling at her friend.

"Have you told Jackson?" Arizona asks. "I'm worried that you're doing this alone when you don't have to."

"I'm not. And I'm not doing this alone, I told you," April replies smiling tightly.

Taking a moment to consider that, Arizona looks over at her friend and says, "Okay, then I'll schedule the 3D ultrasound and the genetic test, we need to get in front of this and find out if the fetus is carrying the genetic marker for Osteogenesis Imperfecta..."

"No." April interrupts.

"April, I get it, with everything that you went through last time you don't want to be stuck and prodded, but..."

"No. I'm not getting tested," April replies looking down, she knows this isn't what Arizona wants to hear.

"What?" Arizona stammers.

"Because my baby will be fine," April says firmly before stepping around the blonde and leaving the office.

* * *

"She said because her baby's fine, she won't take the test," Arizona replies.

"How does she know that the baby is fine, if she doesn't take the test? That's crazy," Alex responds. "Well Avery will just have to convince her to take the test."

"She hasn't told him yet," Arizona says grimacing.

"One of us should tell him," Alex points out.

"We can't she's our patient," she counters.

"She's not our patient, she's refusing to be our patient and he is our friend, we should tell him," Alex replies.

"Look, I'll handle it, just don't do anything yet," Arizona replies.

* * *

"Dr Grey, do you want me to scrub in on this procedure with you?" Wilson asks sitting down beside her to put on shoe guards.

"Uh, you're not on my service?" Meredith asks.

"Dr Webber switched us up today. I'm on your service," Wilson explains.

"Well, I don't have time to get you up to speed, so go check my post ops," Meredith barks annoyed at the change.

"Meredith, we could use a resident in there with us," Maggie points out.

"She hasn't had time to prepare, even if she was in there she wouldn't have been any help," Meredith points out.

"She's smart, she would have been fine in there with us," Maggie counters, putting on a surgery gown.

"Well, I'm not in the habit of just giving away surgeries, she needs to earn it," Meredith remarks, slipping into one herself.

"Meredith, she is a fourth year, she has earned it," Maggie reminds her.

"Hey, are you free tonight? We're going to have family dinner with the kids," Meredith asks changing the topic.

"We?" Maggie asks. "We as in you and me or we as in you and Arizona?"

Meredith rolls her eyes, "Yes, we as in me and Arizona. Do you have a problem with us being together?" she asks.

"Not at all, I just think it's time that she just moves in already," Maggie remarks as they go over to the scrub sink.

"Good, because that's what we're going to talk about tonight," Meredith replies. "Six pm," she adds.

* * *

Arizona knocks lightly on the lab door until she gets Callie's attention, then she opens it. "You have a minute?" she asks.

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" Callie asks sitting back down on a stool.

"Meredith and I decided to have a family dinner tonight and Sofia asked if you could be there," Arizona replies.

"Okay, if you and Meredith want me there, I'll come...what time?" she asks.

"We do want you there, because we need to talk as a family," Arizona explains.

"I'm not your family anymore," Callie points out.

"Calliope, we have a child together, we'll always be family," Arizona counters.

"Okay, but if you're moving into Meredith's, I'm fine with that," she remarks.

"Dinner is at six," Arizona replies, shooting the brunette a smile and opening the door to the lab to leave before she spills the secret.

"I'll be there," Callie calls out before she gets too far away.

* * *

"Go get Dr Robbins," Ben says softly to DeLuca, trying not to alarm the patient that he's giving the ultrasound.

"Is there a problem Dr Warren?" the patient asks glancing around the room nervously.

"Uh, not really. I'm just new to Dr Robbins service and I'm having trouble locating one of the babies," he admits.

"We came in here with four, you can't find one?" the patient asks loudly.

"I'll find him," Arizona says confidently entering the room. "Don't worry Courtney, he's here... uh, right there." Arizona says smiling at her patient.

"I can barely see him, why is that?" the father asks.

"Courtney, you're in labor. He's dropped low and is almost in the birth canal," Arizona explains.

"No, it's too early. Dr Robbins, can you pull him out of there?" Courtney questions panicking.

"Uh, well first I have to stop your labor. So Courtney stay calm and Doug, help her stay calm," she remarks pulling the husband over to his wife. Then grabbing the intern's arm, Arizona walks over to the door, "DeLuca, go and prep the OR for a multiple birth, and page Karev and have him get a team together."

Turning back to her patient, Arizona explains. "We will need to take Courtney to the OR to prep her for delivery, but I'm going to do everything I can to stop her labor."

"Dr Robbins, you have to stop the labor, you said they can't survive at 23 weeks," Courtney stammers, "Doug we came here with four babies, we have to leave here with four babies," she says freaking out.

"Honey, Dr Robbins is doing everything she can to make sure that happens," Doug says confidently, looking at the blonde surgeon hopefully.

"I am going to do everything that I can, just stay calm and don't push," Arizona replies as they release the brakes on the bed and begin to move her out of the room.

* * *

"Okay, what's the plan?" Bailey asks entering the scrub room as Arizona and Alex are arguing.

"The patient is at 23 weeks with quads and she's in labor, there's a baby heading into the birth canal," Arizona begins to explain.

"So we have to deliver all four babies at 23 weeks, I have the OR set up, let's go do this," Alex replies.

"NO!" Arizona replies loudly, then outlines her plan to Bailey, who looks at her worriedly.

"Stop, please stop. I know what you're going to say and I don't want to be in a position where I go against you. I know that this is a judgement call, but your judgement is not better here. I am the fetal surgeon and I know what needs to be done and this is the only way that I know to do it." Arizona replies confidently, but also worried that she's going to have to argue with Bailey like she's been doing with Alex.

"Okay," Bailey replies pausing. "I was just going to say good luck."

Alex looks at her in disbelief, he can't believe that she's going along with this.

Entering the OR, Arizona moves in to examine the patient again as Alex still has the teams assembled for four babies.

"Move everyone out, we just need one Neonatal cube," Arizona barks out.

"But Dr Robbins..." the patient protests.

"Courtney, you're having one of these baby today," Arizona informs her, "There's no other option, I'm holding his foot, he's in the birth canal."

* * *

"Wait, you delivered one of the quads today?" Meredith asks as they work on dinner together. "Can you do that?"

"I hope so," Arizona replies. "No one's done it before, but there's no reason that it can't work."

"How's the baby that you delivered?" Meredith questions.

"Alex is monitoring him, it's not going to be easy, but we think he'll be okay," Arizona admits.

"Wow, you're amazing," Meredith says turning around to kiss her.

"We'll see," Arizona remarks still worried about it.

"Momma!" Sofia and Zola exclaims as they enter the kitchen and rush each of the women. Each one talking a mile a minute about their exciting day at school.

"Girls, hold on. We can't hear both of you at the same time," Meredith points out.

"Why don't you both go upstairs and put your things away and get washed up for dinner," Arizona suggests.

"Is Mami coming for dinner?" Sofia asks.

"Yes little miss, so save your stories and you can tell us together at dinner," Arizona points out.

"Ugh, are my ears bleeding from those excited little voices in the car," Maggie complains sitting down at the counter and taking a sip of Meredith's wine.

"Where's Callie? Didn't she follow you over?" Meredith asks grabbing another wine glass and filling it for her sister.

"She got a phone call just as we were getting into the car," Maggie explains. "Meredith! What is that?" she asks loudly, grabbing her sister's hand to look at the ring. "Is this why we're having family dinner?" Maggie blurts out. "The two of you are engaged?"

Nodding the two women smile, "Yes, but we haven't told the kids yet. Are you two okay with it?" Meredith asks.


	20. Chapter 20

"I am so, okay with it," Maggie says reaching over to take Arizona's hand to look at her ring. "These rings are gorgeous, did you buy them together?" she asks.

Before they can answer the front door opens and Callie calls out to them.

"Hey, sorry I'm late, Major Thorpe called to give me an update on Carson," she explains.

"We're in here," Meredith calls out.

Callie drops her bag and hangs her jacket up on the coat rack, then makes her way into the kitchen.

"It smells good, who's cooking?" she asks smiling and looking at Maggie who is sitting there drinking wine.

"We both are," Arizona says turning around to face the brunette.

"Interesting, because neither of you likes to cook," she smirks.

"There are four kids and three adults in this house, we kind of had to figure out how to cook together," Meredith remarks.

"Oh, wait so you're moving in?" Callie asks Arizona.

"I am. Amelia and Maggie are going to sublease my place," Arizona explains, brushing a stray curl out of her face with her left hand.

"Wait, what is that?" Callie almost screams, when she sees the ring on Arizona's finger. She rushes around the island and grabs the blonde's hand. "You're engaged?" She asks turning to grab Meredith's hand and whipping her head back and forth excitedly before throwing an arm around each of them. "This is awesome, congratulations!" she exclaims.

"Y-you're okay with it?" Arizona stammers.

"Of course I am okay with it. The two of you have been together for months now. Sure it was weird at first, but I have to admit, you're really good together." Callie confesses. "When did this happen?" she asks.

"This morning," Arizona blurts out.

"This morning? Wow." Callie remarks as she goes over to the sideboard to grab a wine glass, which Meredith immediately fills. "Congratulations!" the brunette says holding up her glass and waiting for the others to join her in the little toast.

* * *

"That went well," Meredith remarks as she closes the door behind Callie.

"It did," Arizona agrees. "So who is Major Thorpe?"

"Major Will Thorpe is a sexy angry military surgeon, who Torres thinks is super hot and she should probably go out with," Meredith replies. "I think that's why she keeps bringing him up, she wants to make sure I won't mind."

"Wait, did he ask you out?" Arizona asks.

"Arizona, it doesn't matter if he did or didn't ask me out. Because If I had any interest in him, I would not have asked you to marry me," Meredith points out wrapping her arms around the blonde.

"I know," she replies tilting her head up to kiss the taller woman. "I'm sorry, this...us, it means everything to me, you mean everything to me and it scares me. The last time I felt this way about someone it didn't work out and I keep thinking, did I miss something? Was she not sure and I just didn't ask the right question?" Arizona explains. "So I keep asking and praying that your answer stays the same."

"Arizona, if you know me at all, you know that I marry for life. I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't mean it, so the real question is are you prepared to do this, because I'm not going anywhere. So are you really in this?" Meredith asks firmly.

Nodding tearfully, Arizona raises up on her tiptoes, "Yes, I'm in this and I'm not going anywhere either," she replies.

* * *

 **Epilogue**

* * *

"Is she here yet?" Meredith asks Amelia nervously.

"Yes, yes, she's here. The surgery went well and she's here changing now," Amelia says hoping to calm her down.

"I can't believe that I agreed to this," Meredith replies pacing the room nervously. "Derek and I just did this at the courthouse and it was fine. I don't know why I thought I wanted to do this," she grumbles.

"You're nervous." Amelia points out. "Oh my god, Meredith Grey is a nervous bride, I never thought I'd see that," Amelia quips.

"Shut it Amelia. This is your fault, you and Maggie and all your talk about weddings. I would have been fine with a small ceremony in the backyard," Meredith reminds her.

"You'll be fine as soon as it begins, the waiting is the worst," Amelia remarks, which earns her a glare from Meredith. "I have three sisters, this isn't my first time as a bridesmaid," she points out.

A soft knock on the door and Maggie enters. "Wow, you look gorgeous!" she exclaims to her sister.

"Thanks, please tell me that you just came from helping Arizona into her dress?" Meredith asks worriedly.

"Relax Mer, she's here and she's getting dressed. Amelia, she asked for you though," Maggie says turning to the small brunette and giving her a slightly panicked look.

"I'll be right back," Amelia says before giving her a light hug. "You look so beautiful," she adds with a wink.

* * *

Knocking lightly at the door, Amelia waits a moment and then enters the room.

"You're still not dressed?" she exclaims rushing into the room. "Why aren't you dressed?"

"I, uh, just need a minute," Arizona says taking a deep breath.

"You might be more nervous than Meredith," Amelia remarks going over to the blonde, who is still wearing scrubs.

"Meredith is nervous?" Arizona asks concerned.

"Just a normal amount of nervous," Amelia explains hoping to calm the blonde down.

"Well, I'm not nervous," Arizona replies. "I'm just, I just need a minute... when I was paged this morning for that emergency, I was scrubbing in for the surgery and Edwards reminded me that it was my wedding day," she blurts out. "How could I forget that? What kind of person forgets it's her wedding day?"

"You were sound asleep when you got that page. We're surgeons, Arizona. That pager pushes our lives out of our heads and we immediately focus on the patient. That's a good thing," Amelia points out. "We wouldn't be very good surgeons if we couldn't focus like that."

"You don't think it means anything else? Like maybe I'm not really ready to get married again?" Arizona asks.

"It can mean whatever you want it to mean. But I don't think it has to have anything to do with that. Personally, I love that about surgery. No matter what's going on in my life, emergency surgeries are better than any drug. That rush of adrenaline and laser focus, the intensity... it's an instant reprieve from all the crap in your life. Look Meredith understands that more than anyone, she's a surgeon too," Amelia reminds her as she goes over to her friend and lifts up her chin. "You love her right?"

"More than anything," Arizona admits.

"Okay, then get dressed and marry her," Amelia quips.

"Thanks Amelia," Arizona says stepping behind the screen. "Will you help me get that dress on now?" she asks.

"Absolutely," Amelia replies pleased with herself.

* * *

"What's going on? Why aren't they ready yet?" Callie asks Maggie in the hall outside the changing rooms.

"Arizona had that emergency surgery this morning and she just got here. She's changing now," Maggie answers nervously.

"You're worried though. What's going on? Which one of them is freaking out?" Callie asks.

"Uh, both of them are freaking out. Meredith is worried because Arizona was late. Arizona is worried because when she was paged early this morning for the emergency, she forgot it was her wedding day," Maggie explains. "Amelia's talking to her now.

"Maybe I should check on her," Callie says going over to knock on Arizona's door.

"Hey, how is she?" She asks when Amelia opens the door.

"She's good. Getting dressed now," Amelia replies. "I need to go help her get into the dress," she says closing the door, then she adds, "Hey, would you tell Meredith that everything is fine?"

"Of course, and it is right?" Callie asks concern evident on her face.

"Yes, it's all good," Amelia repeats closing the door.

* * *

"Just relax," Alex says as he loops his arm into Meredith's. He agreed to walk her down the aisle and be her best man, Maggie is her Maid of Honor/Bridesmaid.

Arizona is already there, she was walked down the aisle by her father; standing with her are Richard, her best man and Amelia, her Maid of Honor/Bridesmaid.

Miranda agreed to officiate the ceremony and they are all standing there waiting for Alex to walk Meredith down the aisle. The outdoor ceremony is at the Olympic Rooftop Pavilion just before sunset, they managed to pick one of the few beautiful days in late summer with no rain or clouds.

Callie sends Zola down the aisle to spread flower petals for her mom; Sofia did the same for Arizona and she's sitting between Daniel and Barbara Robbins in the first row, where Callie's headed to join them. Not every ex-wife would care to be this involved with her ex's wedding, but it's not every day your ex marries your best friend, Callie reminds herself.

Barbara Robbins reaches out for Callie's hand as she sits beside her and squeezes it to let the brunette know that she's proud of her for doing this for Arizona and Meredith. Callie returns the smile and the squeeze. She is happy that Arizona's parents still treat her like family.

They watch Zola come down the aisle carefully dropping the petals, when she gets to the end, she looks at Maggie and then over to Daniel and Barbara, she doesn't remember where she's supposed to go. Jo jumps up and quickly takes her hand and pulls her over to sit beside her and Bailey, then Zola waves to Sofia and her new grandparents. She hasn't really had grandparents before, so this is something new for her and her brother.

The music changes and everyone watches as Meredith and Alex begin their walk down the aisle. Meredith smiles at the site of Catherine Avery holding Ellis and Jo standing hand in hand with Zola and Bailey. She gives them a small wave before she turns to face Arizona.

The two brides take a moment to gaze at each other. They somehow managed to pick out their dresses separately, although Maggie and Amelia helped to guide and assure them that they would look perfect together, and this is the first time that they've seen each other. They both smile tearfully at the site of the other and then Maggie and Amelia both step up to take their bridal bouquets, which allows them to both step forward and take each other's hands. The contact causes them both to sigh in relief, which gives them another reason to smile at each other. Bailey suppresses a laugh as she watches the relief wash over their faces.

"Friends and family gathered before us today... you are here to witness the union between two people who have chosen to be united in marriage before us. This is a celebration... a celebration of love, happiness, friendship and commitment. Please join me as they exchange their vows of love and commitment... Bailey pauses and waits for Arizona to begin her vows.

"Meredith, we grew into friendship that deepened in time, much like our love which began slowly until it grew into a longing to belong to each other that neither of us could ignore if we tried. Falling in love with you, though unexpected, was like a balm to my soul and as cheesy as it sounds, you complete me in ways I didn't know I needed." Arizona stops talking and dabs her eyes.

"Arizona, your kindness and generous spirit won me over easily and falling in love with you has been a beautiful and amazing journey that I am grateful to have taken," Meredith says pulling the blonde to her. "I love you in ways that I didn't know were possible until I met you. Loving you has changed me and forever changed my life, together we will raise our children and share everything that life brings our way."

Bailey waits a moment to make sure they are finished before speaking.

"Now I ask those gathered here today to commit to supporting Arizona and Meredith in their commitment to each other. And as a sign of that support, I ask that you all say, we will."

"We Will." The guests say in unison.

"Now, I ask the brides to exchange rings," Bailey says taking a ring from Richard she holds it up and then hands it to Arizona. Then turns to Alex and he hands her the other ring.

"With this ring, I thee wed," Arizona says, her voice shaking a bit.

Bailey hands Meredith the other ring and she turns to the blonde.

"With this ring, I thee wed," Meredith says excitedly slipping the ring onto Arizona's finger.

"By the power invested in me by the State of Washington, I now pronounce you wife and wife!"

Then waiting for the two brides to turn to face their guests, she adds excitedly, "May I present Doctors Arizona and Meredith Robbins-Grey."

The guests all look surprised, no one expected them to change their names.

* * *

As the reception winds down, Amelia looks over at Arizona and Meredith and asks, "Why did you guys decide to change your names this time?"

"It just felt like the right thing to do. It let's everyone know that our lives have changed in a good way and we'll get to avoid a hundred awkward conversations about our past," Meredith explains.

"It just seemed like a good way to steer people into our present," Arizona adds.

"Well, I never would have expected it," Amelia replies smiling at them both, "But I'm really happy for both of you," she adds leaning in to hug each of them. "Welcome to our crazy family, officially," she quips to Arizona.

"Arizona are you sure your parents will be okay with the kids tonight?" Meredith asks.

"Meredith, trust me. My parents can handle our kids for a week, this is just one night," she explains.

"Actually, I'm glad that you brought that up," Meredith says handing the blonde an envelope.

"What is this?" Arizona asks confused.

"It's tickets to our honeymoon in Hawaii," Meredith replies. "I thought you should see the USS Arizona memorial, so I booked us a week in Hawaii."

"What?" Arizona squeals excitedly.

"Your dad thought it was a great idea, so he and your mom have agreed to stay with the kids. I've already cleared our surgery schedules, we leave on Sunday morning." Meredith explains.

"This. Is. Amazing. I love you so much, thank you. It's perfect!" Arizona says pulling her into her arms and kissing her.

"I'm glad that you like it," Meredith says relieved. "I was worried that you wouldn't want to fly."

"I don't want to fly, but I do want to go to Hawaii, so I'll just have to get over it," Arizona remarks kissing her again. "Now since I thought we were going to wait on the honeymoon, my wedding gift seems rather boring," she says pouting as she hands over a box.

Meredith smiles at her before ripping open the box and pulling out a new lab coat, embroidered with her new name, title and credentials. "I love it Arizona! Thank you," she exclaims.

"Now I think we should call it a night and go to our suite, don't you?" Arizona asks taking her hand.

"Definitely," Meredith replies standing up from the table. "Attention everyone. Thank you for attending our wedding and reception, but it's been a crazy long day for both of us. Even more so for my beautiful wife who was up early this morning to save a pregnant woman and her twins before our wedding" she says looking over at the blonde with so much love and adoration that everyone cheers and holds up their glasses.

Please stay and dance and drink, the band is here until midnight, but we'd like to begin our wedding night, if you know what I mean!" Arizona jokes and flashes them a mischievous smile. Which merits her a gentle slap on the shoulder from Meredith, who then grabs the blonde's hand and leads her away from their friends and family anxious to begin their new life together.


End file.
